Division     "BSSW 

Sectioa         \^05' 
V.6 


HOURS  WITH  THE   BIBLE: 


OB, 


THE  SCRIPTURES  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE, 


ToViVl     CUNNINGHAM  GEIKIE,  D.D.,  LL.D 


AN  ENTIRELY  NEW  EDITION,  REVISED  THROUGHOUT 
AND  LARGELY  REWRITTEN. 


nXUSTBATED. 


VOL.     VI. 

FROM  THE  EXILE  TO  MALACHI, 
COMPLETING  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


NEW  YORK  : 

JAMES   POTT   &   COMPANY. 

1905. 


Copyright,  1892,  by 
JAMES  POTT  &  CO. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  FASL 

1.  A  Voice  from  Chebar,  against  Judah   .        ,        ,  1-  19 

II.  The  Crisis  as  it  appeared  to  Ezekiel  ^        .        .  20-  38 

III.  The  Eve  of  the  Siege  of  Jerusalem      .        ,  89-  53 

IV.  The  Investment  of  Jerusalem          ...  54-  74 
V.  During  the  Siege       ,,,..,-  75-102 

VI.  The  Fall  of  Jerusalem    .        =        .,,.  103-114 

VII.  The  "  Lamentations  "  of  Jeremiah         .        ,        .  115-136 

VIII.  Edom  and  the  Nations  round  .        .        .        =  137-159 

IX.  The  Murder  of  Gedaliah  and  the  Siege  of  Tyre.  160-183 

X.  The  Jewish  Colonies  in  Egypt        ....  184-206 

XI.  On  the  Chebar 207-227 

XII.  The  Vision  of  the  Future 228-255 

XIII.  At  Babylon        .  ; 256-287 

XIV.  Comfort  ye  My  People     .,,...  288-309 
XV.  The  Fifth  Gospel      .......  310-366 

XVI.  Redemption  drawing  Nigh        .        ,        ,        ,        .  367-406 

XVII.  The  Return 407-427 

XVIII.  Haggai  and  Zechariah     .,.,..  428-451 

XIX.  Queen  Esther    . 452-482 

XX.  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  ......  483-520 

XXI.  The  Prophet  Malachi 527-54? 

Index  ..,,.....         543 


HOURS  WITH   THE    BIBLE, 


CHAPTER  I. 

A  VOICE  FROM  CHEBAR,  AGAINST  JUDAH. 

Nothing  was  more  fatal  to  the  religious  life  of  the  ex- 
iles in  Chaldaea,  or  their  brethren  still  left  in  Judah,  than 
the  confident  air  of  some,  calling  themselves  prophets,  who 
held  out  hopes  directly  opposed  to  the  warnings  of  men 
like  Ezekiel  and  Jeremiah.  The  result  had  been  a  general 
discredit  of  the  order.  It  had  become  a  common  saying 
that  '^The  days  of  trouble  are  long  in  coming;  all  proph- 
ecy is  deceit. ^^  ^  Men  who  thus  misled  the  community  by 
audacious  misrepresentations  made  in  the  name  of  God, 
needed  to  be  openly  assailed,  and  Ezekiel,  therefore,  de- 
termined thoroughly  to  expose  them.  Referring  to  the 
proverb  so  current,  he  informed  his  fellow-captives  that 
Jehovah  commanded  him  to  address  them  thus,  in  His 
name  : 

"  XII.  23.  I  will  '^  make  this  proverb  cease,  so  that  it  will  no  longer 
be  used  in  Israel.  Say  to  them:  The  days  (of  visitation)  and  of  the 
fulfilment  of  every  prediction  are  at  hand.  24.  For  there  shall  no 
more  be  lying  vision,  or  (false)  flattering  divination,  in  the  House  of 
Israel.  25.  But  I,  Jehovah,  will  speak,  and  what  I  speak  will  come 
forthwith  to  pass ;  it  will  be  no  longer  delayed.     In  your  own  days,  0 

'  Ezek.  xii.  22.  «  Ezek.  xii.  23-28. 

VOL.  VI.-l 


2  A  VOICE  FROM  CHEBAR^  AGAINST  JUDAH. 

House  of  Disobedience,  I  will  both  speak  and  fulfil  My  word,  says  the 
Lord  Jehovah ! " 

Another  saying,  current  everywhere,  was  not  less  un- 
worthy. Men  sneeringly  insinuated  that  *'■  the  visions 
which  Ezekiel '  saw  were  for  the  long  future ;  his  prophe- 
cies, for  distant  times/^  In  contradiction  to  this,  they 
were  now  told  from  Jehovah  Himself,  that  none  of  His 
words,  spoken  through  real  prophets,  would  fail  of  present 
fulfilment.  The  make-believe  prophets,  who  spoke  *^  ac- 
cording to  their  own  hearts,"  were  next  directly  attacked. 

'"  XIII.  3.  Woe,^  cried  Ezekiel,  to  the  ridiculous  mock-prophets, 
who  follow  (not  Jehovah,  but)  their  own  heart,  and  announce  that 
which  they  have  not  seen !  4.  0  Israel,  thy  prophets,  (thus  degenerate, 
instead  of  building  up  the  tottering  state,  have  brought  it  nearer  its  fall), 
as  foxes  (undermine  the  ruins  they  infest).^  5.  Ye  have  not  gone  out 
before  the  gaps  (of  the  vineyard  wall,^  by  night;  to  defend  it,  like 
faithful  keepers,  from  wild  beasts),  nor  have  ye  built  it  up  and  repaired 
it,  before  Israel;  to  help  him  to  stand  in  the  battle,  in  the  day  of 
Jehovah! " 

Instead  of  this,  they  had  promised  a  happy  future,  in 
lying  oracles: 

"  XIII.  6.  They  say  (they  have)  seen  visions,  but  they  were  lies, 
and  their  divination,  also,  was  lying,  when  they  said,  '  Jehovah  saith,' 
though  He  had  sent  them  no  revelations,  and  (declared)  that  they 
might  hope  to  fulfil  their  words.     7.  Is  it  not  true  that  you  have  (only) 

1  Literally,  "this  one."  '  Ezek.  xiii.  3-7. 

3  Wilton  {Negeh,  p.  138)  thinks  the  jackal  is  intended  :  but  the  word  Shual  is  from 
Shaal  =  "  to  go  down  into  the  depth,"  in  allusion  to  the  burrowing  of  the  fox  in  the 
earth. 

<  Hebrew,  gadair.  For  meaning  of  jedar,  see  vol.  iv.  p.  230.  The  loose  wall  of  dry 
stones  ronnd  the  vineyard  had  been  undermined  by  winter  storms,  for  the  prophet 
has  changed  his  figure,  but  these  men  have  not,  like  faithful  keepers  of  the  vineyard, 
Htood  outside  the  gaps  by  night,  to  keep  wild  beasts  from  breaking  in,  nor  have  they 
filled  them  up  and  strengthened  the  weak  and  shaking  jedar,  to  make  the  vineyard 
safe.  There  is  also  a  double  use  of  the  figure,  by  which  the  repaired  wall  would  serve 
aB  a  shelter  and  defence  to  Israel,  on  the  day  of  battle,  etc. 


A  VOICE  FROM  CHEBAR,  AGAiKST  JUDAH.        3 

seen  a  pretended  vision,  and  that  ye  have  uttered  a  lying  divination, 
when  ye  said  '  Jehovah  saith  it,'  though  I,  Jehovah,  have  not  spoken  ? 
"8.  Therefore,'  thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Because  ye  have 
spoken  falsehood,  and  (pretended  to)  see  lies;  behold  I  am  against 
you,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah.  9.  And  My  hand  will  be  on  the  prophets 
who  see  falsehood  and  divine  lies.  They  shall  not  be  the  counsellors 
of  My  people,  nor  shall  they  be  inscribed  in  the  Book  of  the  House 
of  Israel,  nor  come  into  the  land  of  Israel  (at  the  Return) — that  ye 
may  know  that  I  am  the  Lord  Jehovah — 10.  because  they  have  led 
astray  My  people,  saying  'All  is  well,'  though  all  was  not  well. 
For  (My  people,  in  their  foolish  dream  of  security,  behind  the  pro- 
tection of  Egypt,  are  like)  men  that  have  built  a  wall,  and  lo,  tliey 
(the  prophets)  have  daubed  it  over  with  white  plaster  (of  lies,  and  thus 
made  it  seem  trustworthy).  11.  Say  to  them  who  have  daubed  it  over 
with  whited  plaster  (of  lies),  that  it  will  fall.  For  a  deluge  of  rain  is 
coming  ;  and  ye  hailstones,  fall  ye  ;  thou  hurricane,  break  loose! 
12.  And,  lo,  when  the  wall  has  fallen,  will  it  not  be  said  to  you, 
'  Where  is  that  plaster  (of  lies)  which  you  plastered  over  it  ? '  13.  There- 
fore, thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  I  will  let  loose  a  hurricane  wind  in 
My  fury,  and  a  rain,  sweeping  all  before  it,  will  come  in  My  anger, 
and  great  hailstones  in  My  destroying  wrath!  14.  And  I  will  cast 
down  the  wall  that  you  have  plastered  over,  and  throw  it  to  the  earth, 
laying  bare  its  very  foundation,  and  it  will  fall,  and  you  will  perish 
under  it,  and  you  will  know  that  I  am  Jehovah!  15.  I  will  let  loose 
my  fury  on  the  wall  and  on  them  that  plastered  it  over,  and  it  will  be 
said  of  you,  '  The  wall  is  no  more,  neither  they  who  plastered  it  over ; 
16. — the  prophets  of  Israel,  who  prophesy  visions  of  peace  to  her, 
though  there  is  no  peace,'  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah!  " 

But  lying  prophets  were  not  the  only  enemies  with 
whom  their  faithful  brethren  had  to  contend.  While 
these  deceived  the  people  as  a  whole,  false  prophetesses 
misled  individuals,  and  snared  souls  by  unholy  arts, 
promising  life  and  prosperity  where  God  had  denounced 
death.     They,  therefore,  are  next  assailed. 

*'  17.  Likewise,  thou  son  of  man,  set  thy  face  against  the  daughters 
at  thy  people,  who  prophesy  out  of  their  own  heart,  (for  gain,  and  with 

'  Bzek.  xiii.  8-17. 


4  A   VOICE    FROM   CHEBAR,  AGAIKST   JUDAH. 

heathen  spells).  Prophesy  thou  against  them,  18.  and  say,'  Thus  says 
the  Lord  Jehovah  :  Woe  to  the  women  that  sew  together  magic  orna- 
ments for  every  joint  of  the  hand,'^  and  make  magic  coverings  for  the 
heads  of  persons  of  every  age,  to  snare  their  souls.'*  Will  you  thus 
hunt  down  the  souls  of  My  people,  to  preserve  your  own  souls  alive  ; 
19.  dishonouring  ]\Ie  before  My  people,  for  handfuls  of  barley  and  for 
bits  of  bread,  (for  your  maintenance) ;  slaying  souls  which  should  not 
die,  and  keeping  yours  alive  which  should  not  live  ^ — by  lying  to  (those 
of)  My  people  who  listen  to  your  falsehoods  ? 

"20.  Therefore,  thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah :  Behold,  I  am  against 
vour  magic  knots  and  bands,  by  which  ye  snare  souls  (as  if  they 
were  prey  to  make  fly  into  (your  nets);  and  I  will  tear  them  from 
your  arms,  and  will  set  the  souls  free — the  souls  that  ye  hunt  as 
if  they  were  prey  to  make  fly  into  your  nets.*  21.  And  I  will  tear  off 
your  magic  mantles  and  head  coverings,  and  deliver  My  people  out  of 
your  hand,  that  they  may  no  longer  be  in  your  hand  to'  be  hunted 
down ;  and  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah  !  22.  Because  ye  have 
falsely  made  sad  the  heart  of  the  righteous,  though  /  have  not  made 
him  sad,  and  strengthened  the  hands  of  the  wicked,  that  he  should  not 

1  Ezek.  xiii.  18-22. 

2  In  verse  20  they  are  said  to  be  on  the  arms. 

s  De  Wette  and  Evvald  seem  to  have  hit  on  the  most  reasonable  explanation  of  this 
passage— Smend  agreeing  with  them.  De  Wette  fancies  magic  bands  and  fillets  are 
meant.  Evvald  thinks  the  magic  ornaments  were  mirrors  (very  probably  small  in 
size),  which  these  female  dabblers  in  the  black  arts  carried,  as  he  supposes,  on  their 
arms  or  in  their  hands,  as  other  women  carried  their  ordinary  mirrors.  Ewald,  Die 
Propheteri,  vol.  ii.  p.  261.  Rosenmuller  has  anticipated  this  solution  in  his  wonderful 
Scholia.  Some,  says  he,  think  the  words  refer  to  the  magic  rites  of  these  women— 
by  which,  through  placing  such  ornaments  or  things  (whatever  they  were)  on  the  per- 
son of  those  consulting  them,  they  wished  to  make  them  more  fitted  to  receive  their 
divinations.  Theodorct  supposes  pillows  are  mentioned  as  a  figure  for  smooth  and 
seductive  discourse  ;  soft  ])illows  inducing  quiet  and  ease,  and  soft  words,  though 
false,  pleasing  and  soothing  in  a  similar  way,  while  instilling  every  kind  of  perversion 
into  the  mind. 

*  Smend  has,  "  preserved  the  souls  of  others  alive  "—destroying  the  godly  by  the 
terror  of  their  rites,  and  keeping  alive  the  godless,  their  supporters.  But  this  seems 
far-fetched.  Dc  Wette  says,  "  preserving  alive  the  souls  who  belong  to  you."  Rabbi 
Dr.  Arnheim  says,  "that  you  may  preserve  your  own  life."  Rosenmiiller  para- 
phrases the  verse  thus,  "  Shall  I  at  all  permit  that  you  should  destroy  My  people,  by 
your  laying  on  thom  your  lying  oracles,  predicting  all  misfortunes  and  evils  to  them, 
while  you  cheer  your  own  kind  by  promising  them  every  happiness  ?  The  end  will 
be  different  from  what  you  think  ;  good  fortune  will  not  come  to  the  ungodly,  as  you 
say,  but  every  evil  will  light  on  you  and  those  who  listen  to  you."  Ezechiel,  in  loc., 
vol.  i.  p.  355. 

*  De  Wette  renders  it,  "  to  make  them  fly  to  you." 


A   VOICE    FROM    CHEBAR,  AGAINST   JUDAH.  5 

turn  from  liis  wicked  way,  so  as  to  save  his  life — ?3.  therefore  you 
shall  no  more  have  lying  visions,  nor  speak  any  more  false  divinations, 
for  I  will  deliver  My  people  out  of  your  hand  ;  and  ye  shall  know  I  am 
Jehovah  ! " 

If,  however,  it  was  imperative  to  denounce  those  who 
thus  led  the  people  astray,  it  was  no  less  so  to  expose  the 
sins  of  the  people  themselves,  which  made  them  an  easy 
prey.  Advice  and  consolation  were  sought  from  the  true 
prophets,  but  there  was  still  a  hankering  in  the  depth  of 
the  hearts  of  most,  after  their  old  corruptions,  the  high 
places  and  their  idols  ;  many  of  them,  indeed,  as  is  seen 
from  the  Babylonian  tablets,  giving  themselves  up  to  the 
local  idolatry,  and  identifying  themselves  with  the  Chal- 
daeans.  Their  homage  to  the  prophet  was  thus  only  out- 
ward and  worthless.  But  such  hypocrisy  was  utterly  hate- 
ful to  Jehovah,  and  entailed  on  those  guilty  of  it,  Ilis 
severest  indignation.  To  root  it  from  the  bosoms  of  the 
people.  He  threatened  to  visit  them  Avith  the  sternest  pun- 
ishments. Thus  alone  could  His  ancient  relation  to  Israel 
be  restored.  The  enforcing  these  truths  was  now  the 
task  of  Ezekiel,  and  an  occasion  soon  presented  itself. 
Taking  advantage  of  a  visit  from  some  elders  of  the  people, 
he  thus  addressed  the  community  through  them.  He  had 
been  warned  by  the  ''  word  of  Jehovah,"  of  their  secret 
leaning  to  heathenism.  ''  Son  of  man,"  *  it  had  said, 
*'  these  men  cherish  their  loathsome  gods'  in  their  hearts, 
and  set  before  their  eyes  (as  the  object  of  their  worship) 
the  images  wliich  are  the  stumbling  block  that  causes  their 
iniquity.  Should  I  be  inquired  of  at  all  by  such  as  they?  '^ 
He  was  therefore  told  to  say  to  them  : 

•  Ezek.  xiv.  1-5. 

>  "  Loathsome,"  literally.  "  lilth-i,'<>tl^.""  and  bo  throughout. 


6       A  VOICE  FROM  CHEBAR,  AGAINST  JUDAH. 

"  XIV.  4.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,'  Every  man  of  the  house  of 
Israel  that  clierishes  his  loathsome  gods  in  his  heart,  and  sets  before 
his  eyes  the  idols  which  are  the  stumbling  block  of  his  iniquity,  and 
then  comes  to  the  prophet,  I,  Jehovah,  will  answer  him  as  he  deserves, 
(with  the  punishment  due)  for  his  multitiide  of  loathsome  gods;  5. 
that  I  may  visit  home  the  heart  sins  of  the  house  of  Israel,'^  because 
they  are  all  alienated  from  Me  through  their  loathsome  gods. 

"6.  Therefore,  say  to  the  house  of  Israel:  Thus  says  the  Lord 
Jehovah,  Repent  and  turn  back  from  your  loathsome  gods,  and  turn 
your  faces  from  all  idols,  abominations  as  they  are  !  7.  For  every  one 
of  the  house  of  Israel,  and  of  the  foreigners  sojourning  in  Israel,  who 
separates  himself  from  Me,  and  cherishes  his  loathsome  gods  in  his 
heart,  and  sets  up  before  his  eyes  the  stumbling  block  which  causes  his 
iniquity,  and  yet  comes  to  a  prophet,  to  ask  him  to  inquire  of  Me  on 
his  behalf,  I,  Jehovah,  Myself  will  answer  him.  8.  And  I  will  set  My 
face  against  that  man,  and  make  him  a  sign  and  a  proverb,  and  cut 
him  off  from  the  midst  of  My  people ;  and  ye  shall  know  that  I  am 
Jehovah. 

"9.  As  to  the  prophet  who  lets  himself  be  enticed,  and  then  speaks 
a  Word  (for  his  own  ends,  as  if  from  Me)  ;  I,  Jehovah,  who  know  the 
heart,  will  not  hinder  him  that  he  should  not  be  persuaded.'  And  I 
will  stretch  out  My  hand  against  him,  and  destroy  him  from  the  midst 
of  My  people  Israel.  10.  They  will  (each)  bear  the  punishment  of  his 
iniquity  ;  the  punishment  of  the  prophet  shall  be  the  same  as  that  of 
him  who  has  inquired  of  Me  through  him  ;  11.  that  the  house  of  Israel 
may  no  more  go  astray  from  Me,  or  pollute  themselves  any  more  by  all 
the  misdeeds  (of  such  offenders),  but  be  My  people,  and  I  their  God, 
saith  the  Lord  Jehovah !  " 

The  affairs  of  Jerusalem  seem  to  have  been  almost  as 
well  known  among  the  exiles  as  in  Judaea.  In  spite  of  all 
warnings,  the  Egyptian  party  was  gradually  forcing  the 
weak  Zedekiah  into  a  league  with  the  Pharaoh,  which  in- 
volved the  breach  of  his  solemn  oath  ''by  God/' to  be  a 
true  vassal  of  the  Ohaldaean  king.  Such  faithlessness,  Eze- 
kiel  felt,  was  certain  to  bring  down  the  severest  punish- 
ments on   the  land.      Like   all  the  ancient  Hebrews,   he 

^  Ezek.  xiv.  4-11.  a  Literally,  "take  them  in  their  heart." 

'  Eichhorn. 


A  VOICE  FROM  CHEBAR,  AGAIXST  JUDAH.        7 

firmly  believed  in  temporal  rewards  for  godliness,  and  pen- 
alties for  sin.  It  was,  however,  a  difficulty  with  many, 
that  he  should  have  predicted  the  escape  of  some  of  the 
idolatrous  people  of  Jerusalem,  from  the  judgments  im- 
pending on  their  fellows.  He  therefore  shews  them  that, 
while  the  fear  of  God  preserves  alive  the  worthy,  as  seen  in 
the  cases  of  Noah,  Daniel,  and  Job,  the  land  that  sins  must 
suffer.  Nor  was  the  fact  that  some  of  the  ungodly  of  Jeru- 
salem would  be  spared,  any  contradiction  to  this,  for  they 
were  preserved  only  to  vindicate  God's  righteousness,  by 
letting  the  heathen  see  their  vileness,  and  thus  recognize 
the  justice  of  the  Divine  judgments  inflicted  on  their  city. 
The  Word  of  Jehovah,  says  he,  came  again  to  me,  saying  : 

"  XIV.  13.  Son  of  man, '  when  a  land  sins  against  Me  by  gross  unfaith- 
fulness, ^  and  I  stretcii  out  My  hand  against  it,  and  break  the  staff  of 
its  bread,  and  send  on  it  Famine,  and  cut  off  man  and  beast  from  it: 
14.  Though  these  three  men,  Noah,  Daniel,^  and  Job  were  in  it,  they 
would  save  only  their  own  lives  by  their  righteousness,  says  the  Lord 
Jehovah.  15.  If  I  let  Wild  Beasts  come  into  a  land,  and  they  bereave 
it  (of  its  children),  so  that  it  become  such  a  desert  that  no  one  can  pass 
through  it  anymore,  because  of  these  beasts:  IG.  though  these  three 
men  were  in  it,  as  I  live,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  they  would  save 
neither  sons  nor  daughters ;  they  (themselves),  only,  would  be  saved, 
but  the  land  would  be  desolate.  17.  Or,  should  I  bring  War  on  that 
land,  and  say,  '  Sword,  go  through  that  land,'  and  should  cut  off  man 
and  beast  from  it :  18.  though  these  three  men  were  in  it,  as  I  live, 
saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  they  would  save  neither  sons  nor  daughters; 
they,  themselves,  only  would  be  saved !  19.  Or,  if  I  send  Pestilence 
into  that  land,  and  pour  out  My  fury  upon  it  in  blood,  cutting  off  from 
it  man  and  beast :  20.  were  even  Noah,  Daniel,  and  Job  in  it,  as  I  live, 
saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  they  would  save  neither  son  nor  daughter; 
they  would  save  their  own  lives  only,  by  their  righteousness. 

»  Ezek.  xiv.  13-20. 

^  Ewald  thinks  the  breach  of  the  oath  by  Zedekiah  is  referred  to. 
3  Daniel  was  at  the  time  a  captive  in  Babylonia.    The  inversion  of  names  may  rise 
from  the  fact  of  the  case  of  Job  seeming  like  a  climax.    See  Ueb.  xi.  32. 


8       A  VOICE  FROM  CHEBAR,  AGAINST  JUDAH. 

"21.  Now,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah;  *  How  much  more  (will  this  be 
the  case)  when  I  send  My  four  sore  judgments  on  Jerusalem— the 
Sword,  Famine,  Wild  Beasts,  and  Pestilence,  to  cut  off  from  it  man 
and  beast?  23.  Yet,  behold,  a  few  shall  be  spared  in  it,  and  led  away 
captives,  both  men  and  women,  and  they  will  be  brought  among  you,' 
that  you  may  see  their  way  and  their  doings,  and  be  comforted  con- 
cerning the  evil  I  have  brought  on  Jerusalem,  and  all  I  have  done 
against  it.  23.  For  they  will  satisfy  your  minds  (respecting  Me), 
when  you  see  their  ways  and  their  doings,  and  you  will  know  that  I 
have  not  done  without  cause,  all  that  I  have  done  in  it,  says  the  Lord 
Jehovah!" 

Another  fragment  of  EzekiePs  utterances  in  these  years 
strikes  keenly  at  the  self-complacency  of  his  brethren,  and 
must  have  galled  their  pride.  They  boasted  of  being  the 
noble  vine  planted  in  Canaan  by  God.  Prophets  had  often 
compared  them  to  one/  though  they  had  spoken  also  of  its 
having  degenerated  and  grown  rank  and  useless.  But  in 
the  present  case  the  worthlessness  of  the  wood  of  the  vine, 
so  much  softer  and  more  crooked  than  many  other  kinds, 
is  the  only  point  brought  forward.  They  might,  indeed, 
be  a  vine,  but,  now  that  they  bore  no  fruit,  of  what  worth 
was  their  wood  ?  The  Word  of  Jehovah,  he  says,  came  to 
him,  saying  : 

"  XV.  2.  Son  of  man,  what  better  is  the  wood  of  the  vine  than 
other  kinds  of  wood?  Or  what  is  the  vine-branch  among  the  trees  of 
the  yaar?*  3.  Can  you  take  wood  from  it,  to  make  into  anything? 
or  do  they  take  even  a  pin  from  it,  to  hang  any  vessel  upon  ?  4.  See, 
it  is  given  for  food  to  the  fire !  The  flame  has  burnt  off  its  two  ends, 
and  scorched  the  middle,^  Is  it  good  for  anything?  5.  Even  when 
it  was  whole,  it  was  good  for  nothing;  how  much  less  will  it  be  good 
for  anything  when  the  fire  has  burnt  and  scorched  it ! 

"6.  Therefore,  thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  I  will  make  the  inhabi- 

•  Ezek.  xiv.  21-xv.  6.  ^  In  Babylon,  among  the  exiles. 

3  Hos.  X.  1.    Isa.  V.  1.    Jer.  ii.  21. 

«  See  vol.  iv.  p.  3(59. 

fi  Is  this  au  allusion  to  the  calamities  already  endured  by  the  Twelve  Tribes? 


A   VOICE    FROM    ClIEBAR,  AaAINST  JUDAH.  9 

tants  of  Jerusalem  like  the  wood  of  the  vino,  which  I  have  given,  like 
that  of  the  other  trees  of  the  yaar,  as  food  for  the  fire.  7.  I  will  set 
My  face  against  them.*  They  came  out  of  the  fire,  (when  I  brought 
them  from  Egypt,)  and  fire  will  now  finally  consume  thera,  and  ye 
shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah,  when  I  set  My  face  against  them,  8. 
and  make  the  land  desolate,  because  they  have  committed  unfaithful- 
ness! saith  the  Lord  Jehovah.** 

Ceaseless  iu  his  endeavours  to  rouse  his  fellow-country- 
men to  a  sense  of  their  true  position,  as  apostates,  to  a 
lamentable  extent,  from  the  religion  of  their  fathers,  and 
as  morally  degenerate  and  corrupt,  Ezekiel  tried  every 
style  of  address  in  turn.  An  allegory,  long  and  minute, 
was  his  next  attempt  to  influence  them  for  good.  Jeru- 
salem is  personified  as  a  new-born  female  child,  exposed  at 
her  birth,  but  graciously  taken  under  His  protection  by 
Jehovah,  and  ultimately  united  with  Him  in  a  marriage 
contract,  and  tenderly  cared  for.  Her  conduct,  however, 
is  ungrateful  and  wicked  in  the  extreme,  so  that,  in  the 
end.  He  has  to  threaten  her  with  the  severest  punishment 
for  her  unfaithfulness,  which  is  shewn  to  have  been  greater 
than  that  of  the  worst  of  her  neighbours. 

The  Word  of  Jehovah,  he  says,  came  to  him,  directing 
him  to  '*  cause  Jerusalem  to  know  her  abominations,"  and 
this  he  does  as  follows. 

"XVI.  3.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah  to  Jerusalem:  Thy  origin 
and  birth  were  of  the  land  of  the  Canaanites ;  thy  father  was  an  Amor- 
ite'and  thy  mother  a  Hittite;  (for  when  taken  by  David  thou  wast 

»  Ezek.  XV.  7-8 ;  xvi.  3. 

2  The  Amorites,  as  we  know  them,  from  the  paintings  of  the  chief  men  of  Kadesh- 
of-the-Amorites,  at  Karnak,  were  of  a  white  complexion,  with  light  red-brown  ..air 
and  eyes,  or  of  a  pinkish  flesh  colour,  as  in  other  paintings  ;  quite  distinct  from  the 
red  of  the  Egyptians,  the  brown  of  the  Hittites,  or  the  yellow  of  the  Maghrabis. 
They  (the  Amoritee)  were  a  race  of  fair  people,  allied  to  the  populations  of  the 
,/Egean,  and  were  probably  Aryan.  Flinders  Tetrie,  iu  Bab,  and  Orient.  Hecord., 
ii.l36. 


10  A   VOICE   FROM    CHEBAR,  AGAINST   JUDAH. 

a  Jebusite  city — Amorites  and  Hittites  forming  a  large  part  of  thy 
population).  4.  In  the  day  of  thy  birth  thou  wast  not  cared  for;* 
thou  wast  not  washed  with  water,  to  cleanse  thee,  nor  rubbed  with 
salt,'^  nor  wrapped  in  swaddling  bands.  5.  No  eye  pitied  thee,  to  do 
any  of  these  things  for  thee,  or  had  compassion  upon  thee;  but  thou 
wast  cast  out,  and  exposed  on  the  open  field,  on  the  day  of  thy  birth; 
so  much  wast  thou  loathed." 

This  refers,  by  a  change  of  allusion,  to  the  wretched 
condition  of  Israel  in  Egypt.  But  Jehovah  had  pity  upon 
the  helpless  outcast. 

"6.  Then  went  I  (Jehovah)  by  thee,  and  saw  thee  lying'  in  thy 
blood,  and  said  to  thee — '  All  wretched  *  as  thou  art,  live ; '  yes,  1 
said  to  thee,  '  All  wretched  as  thou  art,  live. '  7.  Ten  thousand-fold 
increase,  like  that  of  the  shoots  of  the  field,  1  gave  thee,  and  thou 
didst  multiply,  and  wax  great,  and  thou  camest  to  have  beauty  of 
cheeks,  and  thy  bosom  became  womanly,  and  thy  hair  grew  long, 
though  once  thou  hadst  been  naked  and  bare.  8.  And  as  I  passed  by 
thee,  and  looked  upon  thee,  lo,  thou  wast  at  the  age  to  love ;  and  I 
swore  (fidelity)  to  you,  and  made  thee  ray  spouse  by  covenant,*  and 
took  thee  under  my  protection,  throwing  as  it  were  My  mantle  over 
(thee,  as  sign  that  I  did  so),'saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  and  thou  becamest 
Mine.  9.  Then  I  washed  thee  with  water,  and  cleansed  thee  from  all 
the  shame  of  the  past,  and  anointed  thee  with  oil.  10.  I  clothed  thee 
with  broidered  work  of  many  colours,  and  shod  thee  with  sandals  of 
seal  leather,'  and  wound  a  girdle  of  the  finest  linen  round  thee,  and 
hung  on  thee  a  silken  veil,"  to  thy  feet.  11.  I  decked  thee  with  orna- 
ments ;  I  put  bracelets  on  thy  wrists,  and  a  gold  chain  round  thy  neck. 

»  I  paraphrase  the  clause  of  the  original.    Ezek.  xvi.  4-11. 

2  Infants  were  rubbed  with  salt,  in  the  idea  that  it  hardened  the  skin.  To  this 
day  this  is  done  to  every  new-born  infant  in  Palestine,  before  it  is  wrapped  round 
with  swaddling  clothes— that  is,  plain  bands  of  calico  about  six  inches  wide,  by  three 
yards  in  length. 

•  Sprawling.    Henderson. 
«  Literally,  "bloody." 

•  Under  Moses  and  Joshna,  especially  at  Sinai. 

•  Ruth  ui.  9. 

»  Literally,  "  Tahash  leather."    See  vol.  ii.  pp.  137,  327. 

"  It  is  not  quite  certain  that  the  Hebrews  knew  of  silk  in  Ezekiel's  day.  But  see 
Gesenius,  Thesaurus,  s.  v.  Meshi,  Jerome  calls  it  "a  garment  so  fine  as  to  seem 
equal  to  the  finest  hair."    See  also  Movers,  vol.  ii.  pp.  3,  363. 


A   VOICE   FROM   CHEBAR,  AGAIN^ST   JUDAH. 


11 


12.  I  hung  a  ring  on  thy  nose,  and  ear-rings  on  thine  ears,  and  set  a  fair 
coronet  on  thy  brow  J  13.  Thus  wast  thou  decked  with  gold  and  silver, 
and  thy  raiment  was  of  the  finest  linen,  and  silk,  and  many-coloured 
embroidery,  and  thou  atest  the  finest  bread,  and  honey,  and  oil ;  and 
thou  wast  indeed  passing 
fair,  and  didst  come  to 
be  a  queen, 2  14.  and  thy 
fame  went  forth  among 
the  nations,  for  thy 
beauty,  which  was  per- 
fect, through  the  splen- 
dour in  which  I  had  ar- 
rayed thee,  saith  the  Lord 
Jehovah  ! " 

But,  though  thus 
divinely  favoured,  Is- 
rael had  been  un- 
faithful  to  God. 
Following  the  exam- 
ple of  Hosea,  Ezekiel  represents  this  by  the  figure  of  con- 
jugal infidelity.  All  alliances  with  heathen  nations  had 
been  thus  denounced  by  the  earlier  prophet,  but  the  special 
guilt  of  EzekieFs  day  was  the  idolatrous  worship  that  had 
prevailed  since  the  time  of  Manasseh,  involving  even  hu- 
man sacrifice.  Interrupted,  in  a  measure,  during  Josiah's 
reign,  it  had  broken  out  afresh  after  his  death. 

**  15.  But  thou  didst  trust  to  thy  beauty,  and  thy  fame  seduced  thee 
to  lewdness,  and  thou  gavest  thyself  up  to  uncleanness  with  every 
passer  by,  and  becamest  his ! "  16.  Thou  didst  take  thy  robes  and 
made  many-coloured  Asherah  tents  with  them,  and  committedst  im- 
purity under  them;  a  thing  that  should  never  have  happened.* 


Sandals. 


>  Ezek.  xvi.  ia-16.  2  Literally,  "kingdom." 

»  Thou  didst  coquet  with  every  form  of  idolatry. 

*  Text  apparently  corrupt.  Ewald  translates  the  clause,  "  O  shame  and  disgrace !  " 
In  connection  with  "  Asherah  tents."  it  may  be  noted  that  Erech,  the  modern 
l?arka,  was  the  city  specially  consecrated  to  the  goddess  of  love,  and  from  which  her 


13  A   VOICE   FROM   CHEBAR,  AGAINST  JITDAH. 

**  17.  Thou  didst  also  take  thy  ornaments,  of  My  gold  and  silver  that 
I  had  given  thee,  and  making  them  into  images  of  men,*  committedst 
impurity  with  these.  18.  And  thou  tookedst  thy  many-coloured  robes 
and  arrayed  the  idols  in  them,  and  didst  set  My  oil  and  incense  before 
fchem.  19.  Thou  didst,  further,  set  before  them,  for  a  sweet  savour, 
My  bread  that  I  had  given  thee ;  ^  fine  flour,  and  oil,  and  honey  with 
which  I  fed  thee,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah ! 

"20.  Still  worse,  thou  hast  taken  thy  sous  and  thy  daughters, 
whom  thou  hadst  borne  to  Me,  and  didst  offer  them  to  thy  idols,  to  be 
destroyed  (in  their  honour).  Were  thy  other  sins  so  small  21.  that  thou 
shouldst  also  slay  My  sons,  and  give  them  up  to  pass  through  the  fire, 
for  these  idols?  22.  And,  amidst  all  thy  abominations  and  lewdness, 
thou  hast  forgotten  the  days  of  thy  youth,  when  thou  wast  naked  and 
bare,  and  lay,  cast  out,  in  thy  defilement.^  23.  But  after  thou  hadst 
committed  all  these  iniquities,  "Woe,  woe,  to  thee!  saith  the  Lord 
Jehovah,  24.  thou  hast  also  built  a  canopy  for  an  altar,  and  made  a 
high  place,  in  every  street.''  25.  At  every  meeting  of  the  roads  thou 
didst  build  thy  high  places,  and  didst  dishonour  to  thy  beauty,  and 
disgraced  thyself  before  all,  and  multiplied  thy  idolatry." 

The  introduction  of  Egyptian,  Assyrian,  and  Babylonian 
heathenism  was  notorious. 

"26.  Thou  hast  also  borrowed  idolatry  from  the  Egyptians,  thy 
neighbours,  foul  in  their  heathenism,^  and  hast  increased  thy  sins,  to 
provoke  Me  to  anger.  27.  And,  behold,  in  consequence  of  this,  I 
stretched  out  My  hand  against  thee,  and  diminished  thy  allotted  food- 
supply,  and  gave  thee  over  to  the  will  of  thy  enemies,  the  daughters  of 

worship  spread.  Erech,  we  are  told,  in  the  story  of  the  plague  demon  Nerra,  was  the 
seat  of  Anil  and  Istar,  the  city  of  the  choirs  of  the  festival  girls  and  consecrated 
maidens  of  Istar,  and,  also,  of  the  priest  of  the  goddess  and  of  the  festival  makers 
who  had  devoted  their  manhood,  that  men  might  adore  the  goddess  ;  carrying  ewords, 
razors,  stout  dresses,  and  flint  knives,  and  ministering  to  create  reverence  for  the 
glory  of  Istar.  Erech  was  not  of  Semitic  foundation.  Its  Akkadian  name  was 
TJnuck,  and,  if  this  Unuck  can  be  identified  with  the  Enoch  of  Genesis,  it  was  the 
city  built  by  Cain,  in  commemoration  of  his  first-born  son,  and  must  be  regarded  as 
having  received  its  earliest  culture  from  Eridu,  since  Enoch  was  the  son  of  Jared, 
according  to  Genesis  v.  18,  and  Jared,  or  Irad  (Gen.  iv.  18),  is  the  same  word  as  Eridu. 
Sayce. 

1  The  idols  were  of  human  shape,  for  the  most  part.    Ezek.  xvi.  17-27. 

2  Lev.  xxi.6.  s  laterally,  -'blood." 

*  Isa.  Ivii.  7.  6  Literally,  "  great  of  flesh.*' 


A   VOICE   FROM   CHEBAR,  AGAINST   JUDAH.  13 

the  Philistines,  who  (heathen  as  they  are)  blushed  at  thy  sins.  28. 
Thou  didst  sin  also  with  the  Assyrians,'  still  craving  more  idols  ;  thou 
didst  copy  their  heathenism  also,  and  still  thou  wast  not  satisfied. 
29.  Thou  didst  therefore,  further,  increase  thy  idolatry  by  adopting 
that  of  Chaldaea — the  land  of  traders,  and,  even  then,  thou  wast  not 
satisfied." 

The  prophet  now  breaks  out  into  irony.  Israel,  he  says, 
is  diJfferent  from  others.  They  may  act  for  reward ;  she  has 
been  urged  only  by  love  of  her  sins. 

"30.  How  weak  is  thy  heart!  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  that  thou 
doest  all  this,  like  a  vile  woman  who  is  her  own  mistress,  with  none  to 
check  her  I  31.  that  thou  bulkiest  the  canopy  for  thy  altars  at  every 
meeting  of  the  roads,  and  raisest  thy  high  place  in  every  street;  and 
yet  thou  wast  not  like  a  harlot,  since  thou  hast  not  sought  pay!  33.  O 
thou  adulterous  wife,  who  takest  up  with  strangers,  instead  of  keeping 
to  thy  husband!  33.  A  price  is  given  to  every  harlot,  but  thou,  instead, 
hast  bestowed  thy  gifts  on  all  thy  lovers,  and  hast  hired  them  to  come 
to  thee  from  all  parts,  to  commit  wickedness  with  thee.'^  34.  Thou 
hast  been  the  opposite  of  other  women  in  thy  sins ;  thou  hast  not  been 
gone  after,  but  thyself  hast  gone  after  thy  lovers;  thou  hast  given  pay, 
not  gotten  it;   thou  art,  indeed,  different  from  others!  " 

The  husband,  thus  outraged  beyond  example,  cannot, 
after  all  this,  allow  his  faithless  partner  to  escape  the 
punishment  she  has  deserved,  but  must  insist,  on  many 
grounds,  that  the  severest  penalties  be  inflicted.  Those 
with  whom  she  had  sinned  are  to  be  the  instruments  of  her 
shameful  and  terrible  sentence.  She  must  be  put  to  a 
disgraceful  death,  as  the  law  demands. 

*'35.  Wherefore,  0  harlot,  hear  the  word  of  Jehovah.  36.  Thus 
saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  because  thy  sin  was  poured  out,  and  thy  shame 
revealed,  by  thy  idolatries  with  the  religions  thou  lovedst,  and  with 
all  thy  abominable  disgusting  gods,  and  by  the  blood  uf  thy  children 

» Ezek.  xvi.  28-36. 

»  A  thrust  at  their  sending  after  foreign  idolatries. 


14  A   VOICE   FROM   CHEBAR,  AGAINST   JUDAH. 

whicli  thou  gavest  to  them  ;  37.  Behold,  therefore,'  I  will  gather  all 
who  have  seduced  thee  from  Me,  thy  God,  and  those  whom  thou  hast 
sought  to  please,  and  all  whom  thou  hast  loved,  with  all,  also,  whom 
thou  hast  hated  ;  I  will  gather  them  round  thee,  and  disclose  thy  sin 
to  them,  that  they  may  see  all  thy  guilt,  38.  And  I  will  judge  thee  as 
women  are  judged  who  break  wedlock  and  shed  blood,  and  I  will  shed 
thy  blood,  in  My  fury  and  jealousy.  39.  I  will  give  thee,  also,  into 
their  hand,  and  they  will  throw  down  thy  canopies,  and  break  down 
thy  high  places  ;  they  will  strip  thee  of  thy  robes ;  take  away  thy  fine 
ornaments,  and  leave  thee,  once  more,  naked  and  bare,  as  I  found 
thee!  40.  They  will,  further,  bring  up  a  multitude  against  thee,  and 
stone  thee  with  stones,  and  hew  thee  in  pieces  with  their  swords.  41. 
And  they  will  burn  thy  houses  with  fire,  and  execute  judgments  in 
thee,  before  the  eyes  of  many  women,'*  and  1  will  make  thee  cease  from 
playing  the  harlot,  and  thou  shalt  give  no  more  unholy  hire.  43.  Thus 
will  I  cool  My  fury  on  thee,  and  My  jealousy,  which  thou  hast  excited, 
will  turn  from  thee,  fully  avenged,  and  I  will  have  peace,  and  be  no 
more  angry.  43.  Because  thou  hast  forgotten  the  days  of  thy  youth, 
and  stirred  up  My  indignation  by  all  thy  doings,  behold,  I  will  let  the 
punishment  of  thy  conduct  rest  on  thy  head,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah, 
Thou  wilt  not  be  able  to  increase  thy  offences  by  any  new  deed  of 
shame." 

Jerusalem  is,  in  fact,  really  a  heathen  city.  Canaan 
may  be  called  its  father  and  mother ;  Samaria  and  Sodom 
its  sisters.  In  its  desperate  ungodliness  it  has  even  tran- 
scended these  guiltiest  of  cities,  and  must  think  of  this 
when  it  suffers  a  fate  as  terrible  as  theirs. 

*'44.  Behold,  every  proverb-monger  will  repeat  this  saying  against 
thee ;  '  As  is  the  mother,  so  is  the  daughter ! '  45.  Thou  art  the  (true) 
daughter  of  thy  mother,  who  dishonoured  her  husband  and  her  chil- 
dren :  and  thou  art  the  (true)  sister  of  thy  sisters,  who  dishonoured 
their  husbands  and  their  children; '  thy  mother  was  a  Hittite  and  thy 
father  an  Amorite.*    46.  Thy  elder  sister  is  Samaria,  with  her  daugh- 

*  Ezek.  xvi.  37-46.  2  other  nations. 

3  The  Canaanices  and  Samaria  and  Sodom  alike  turned  from  God  and  gave  up  their 
children  as  sacrifices  to  idols. 

*  Jerusalem  has  shewn  itself  to  be  in'respect  to  religion  a  true  child  of  the  CanMU' 
iteB. 


A   VOICE   FROM   CHEBAR,  AGAINST   JUDA.H.  15 

ters  (the  villages  round  her),  who  dwell  north  from  thee :  thy  younger 
sister,  who  lives  south  from  thee,  is  Sodom  and  her  daughters  (the 
towns  connected  with  her).  47.  Yet  thou  hast  not  contented  thyself 
with  walking  in  their  ways/  nor  in  copying  their  abominations;  that 
was  too  little  for  thee  to  do :  thou  hast  shewn  thyself  still  moi'e  corrupt 
than  they,  in  all  thy  ways!  48.  As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah, 
SoDOM,  thy  sister,  and  her  daughters,  have  not  done  as  thou  and  thy 
daughters  (the  towns  of  Judah)  have  done!  49.  Behold,  the  sin  of  thy 
sister  Sodom  was  this — pride,  through  fulness  of  bread  and  undis- 
turbed security,  marked  her  and  her  daughters,  and  she  did  not  help 
the  poor  and  needy.'^  50.  They  were  haughty,  and  committed  abomi- 
nation before  Me ;  therefore  I  put  them  away,  as  thou  hast  seen. 

"51.  Neither  has  Samaria  committed  half  of  thy  sins.  Thou  hast 
multiplied  thy  abominations  above  hers,  and  hast  made  her  and  her 
daughters  appear  righteous,  through  the  excess  of  abominations  thou 
hast  committed.  52.  Bear,  then,  thy  shame,  thou  who  hast  condemned 
thy  sisters, 3  though  thine  own  greater  sins,  which  made  thee  an  abomi- 
nation, make  them  seem  righteous  in  comparison!  Blush,  and  bear 
thy  shame,  because,  by  thy  greater  sins,  thou  hast  made  thy  sisters 
(with  all  their  guilt),  appear  righteous !  " 

Since,  thus,  Samaria  and  Sodom  were  comparatively 
less  guilty  than  Jerusalem,  there  is  still  hope  even  for 
them — that  is,  for  the  heathen,  of  whom  they  are  made 
the  representatives.  Jerusalem  will  be  restored,  but  her 
return  to  favour  will  follow  that  of  the  nations  she  has 
been  wont  to  despise.  In  this  also  she  must  be  utterly 
humbled. 

"  53.  And  I  will  bring  back  again  their  banished  ones  to  their  homes 
— the  banished  ones  of  Sodom  and  her  daughters,  and  the  banished  ones 
of  Samaria  and  her  daughters — and  then  I  will  bring  back  again  thy 
banished  ones  also,  in  the  midst  of  them — 54.  that  thou  mayest  bear 
thine  own  disgrace,  and  be  ashamed  for  all  that  thou  hast  done,  by  the 
consolation  thou  givest  them  (when  they  see  thee  also  punished  for  thy 

»  Ezek.  xvi.  47-54.  "  Literally,  "  take  hold  of  the  hand  of." 

3  Eichhorn  translates  this  difficult  clause—"  Bear  thou  the  shame  which  thou 
thoujrhtest  well  deserved  by  thy  sisters,"  and  thinks  it  is  an  allusion  to  the  carrying 
off  the  inhabitants  of  Samaria  and  of  the  east  of  the  Jordan  by  Tiglath  Pileser. 


16  A   VOICE   FROM   CHEBAR,  AGAINST  JUDAH. 

sins,  and  find  themselves  restored  through  thy  means).  55,  Thy  sis- 
ters,' Sodom  and  her  daughters,  will  return  to  their  former  estate,  and 
Samaria  and  her  daughters  will  return  to  theirs,  and  thou  and  thy 
daughters  will  return  to  theirs.  56.  Yet  thy  sister  Sodom's  name  was 
not  heard  in  thy  moutli  in  the  day  of  thy  pride,  57.  before  thine  own 
wickedness  was  made  known  (and  thou  didst  despise  her),  as,  at  the 
time  of  the  (Syrian)  oppression,  thou  thyself  wast  the  reproach  of 
the  daughters  of  Syria,  and  of  all  the  nations  round,  who  despised 
thee  on  every  side — the  daughters  of  the  Philistines  (doing  so  es- 
pecially),'' 

"  58.  But  (now)  thou  must  bear  (the  punishment  of)  thy  lewdness 
and  (of)  thine  abominations,  saith  Jehovah!  59.  For  thus  saith  the 
Lord  Jehovah,  I  will  do  with  thee  as  thou  hast  done  (to  Me).  Because 
thou  hast  despised  the  (solemn)  oath  (taken  by  thee),  breaking  the 
covenant  (thou  hadst  made  with  Me :  a  I,  now,  hold  My  covenant  made 
with  thes  as  broken) !  " 

But  Grod  will  not  cast  off  His  people  for  ever.  He  will 
hereafter  make  a  new,  everlasting  covenant  with  them. 
Jerusalem  shall  once  more  be  the  head  of  the  new  theoc- 
racy, into  which  Sodom  and  Samaria  will  be  received  ; 
but  this  glorious  restoration  will  be  due  solely  to  the  sov- 
ereign favour  of  God,  and  thus,  as  bounty  to  the  unde- 
serving, will  call  forth  humiliation  at  the  remembrance  of 
the  guilty  past. 

"  60.  Yet  I  will  (hereafter)  remember  My  (old)  covenant  with  thee, 
in  the  days  of  thy  youth,  and  I  will  establish  with  thee  an  everlasting 
covenant.  61.  Then  wilt  thou  think  of  thy  (former)  ways  and  be 
ashamed,  when  thou  takest  to  thee  thy  sisters — the  elder  and  the 
younger,  ■•  whom  I  will  give  thee  for  daughters,  though  (thou  hast  no 

^  Ezek.  xvi.  55-61. 

2  This  is  Smend's  idea  of  the  meaning  of  this  passage.  Ewald  refers  it  to  the  then 
present  position  of  Judah.  But  though  the  Syrian  kingdom  of  Chaldtea  (as  it  might 
be  called)  was  against  it,  the  Philistines  had  long  been  crushed.  Eichhorn  thinks  it 
alludes  to  the  oppression  of  Assyria,  which  at  the  time  held  Philistia  also.  But 
Smend's  idea  seems  best.  The  Philistines  wen;  still  very  troublesome  in  the  time  of 
the  distinctively  Syrian  war,  before  the  fall  of  Samaria. 

'  Ezek.  xvi.  8.  *  Sodom  and  Samaria. 


A  VOICE  FROM  CHEBAR,  AGAINST  JUDAH.      17 

claim  to  them)  by  thy  covenant.'  62.  And  I  will  establish  My  covenant 
with  thee,' and  thou  shalt  know  that  I  am  Jehovah;  63.  that  thou 
mayest  ponder,  and  be  humiliated,  and  never  more  open  thy  mouth, 
because  of  thy  shame,  when  I  forgive  thee  for  all  that  thou  hast  done, 
saith  the  Lord  Jehovah  I  " 

Another  utterance  of  Ezekiel,  of  this  time,  returns  to 
the  special  and  crowning  sin,  which  was  bringing  down 
the  last  calamities  on  Judah — the  faithlessness  of  Zedekiah 
to  his  treaty  with  Nebuchadnezzar.  His  threatened  revolt 
was  clearly  self-destruction.  He  might  enjoy  a  quiet, 
though  inglorious  reign,  by  keeping  his  oath.  To  rise 
against  Chaldaea  meant  ruin,  not  only  to  himself,  but  to 
the  kingdom.  Nor  was  it  treacherous  only.  To  break  an 
oath  made  ''by  Elohim/^  his  God,  was  a  high  offence 
against  the  Divine  Majesty,  and  must  bring  down  bitter 
punishment,  and  shocked  even  the  Chaldaean  king. 

The  prophet  begins  in  figurative  language,  but  lays  it 
aside  as  he  goes  on. 

"XVTI.  1.  The  word  of  Jehovah  came  to  me,  saying:  2.  Son  of 
man,  put  forth  a  riddle,  and  speak  a  parable  to  the  house  of  Israel,  3. 
and  say:  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  The  great  eagle'  with  huge 
wings  of  vast  spread,  full  of  feathers  of  different  colours,  came  to 
Lebanon,  and  took  off  the  topmost  branch  of  a  cedar.*  4.  He  plucked 
away  the  highest  of  its  twigs,*  and  took  it  to  the  Land  of  Traders," 
and  set  it  in  the  city  of  business  men.^  5.  He  took  also  a  vine  of  the 
plants  of  the  land,*  and  set  it  in  a  fruitful  field;"  a  shoot  beside 
abundant  waters,  planting  it  near  them,  like  a  willow.  6.  And  it 
sprouted  and  became  a  trailing  vine  of  low  growth,  and  its  branches 
twined  themselves  towards  the  eagle,  and  its  roots  were  under  him.  So 
it  became  a  vine-stock,  and  gave  off  runners,  and  shot  forth  tendrils. 

>  "  Or,  though  they  be  not  of  the  covenant."  '  Ezek.  xvi.  62-xvii.  6. 

3  Nebuchadnezzar. 

*  Judah.    Jehoiachin  was  the  topmoet  bough  or  twig. 

*  Its  chief  men  who  were  made  captives.  •  Chaldaea. 
T  Babylon.    This  refers  to  Jehoiachin'e  captivity. 

•>  Zedekiah.  •  Jadab. 

VOL.  VI.-2 


18      A  VOICE  FROM  CHEBAR,  AGAINST  JUDAH. 

"7.  And  there  was  another  great  eagle/  with  huge  wings  and  many- 
feathers,  ^  and,  behold,  the  vine  began  to  bend  its  roots  and  shoot  out 
its  branches  towards  him,  from  the  beds  on  which  it  was  planted,  that 
he  might  water  it  and  the  ground  in  which  it  was  planted.  8.  It  was 
set  in  good  soil,  beside  abundant  waters,  to  shoot  out  runners,  and 
bear  fruit,  and  become  a  goodly  vine. 

"9.  Say  thou— Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  Will  it  thrive?  Shall 
he  (Nebuchadnezzar)  not  tear  up  its  roots  and  strip  off  its  fruit,  so  that 
it  will  wither ;  all  its  shooting  leaves  drying  up,  so  that  no  great  power 
or  strong  army  will  be  needed  to  pluck  it  up  from  the  very  root  ?  10. 
Look  there!  this  newly-set  plant — will  it  thrive?  Will  it  not,  if  the 
scorching  east  wind'  touch  it,  wither  up  wholly? 

' '  Will  it  not  wither  away  in  the  beds  in  which  it  grows  ?  " 

Auotlier  Word  that  came  to  Ezekiel  on  the  same  subject 
runs  as  follows  : 

*'13.  Say  now  to  the  House  of  Disobedience  :  Know  ye  not  what 
these  things  mean  ?  Say :  Behold,  the  king  of  Babylon  came  to  Jeru- 
salem and  took  away  its  king  *  and  its  princes,  and  brought  them,  to 
himself,  to  Babylon.  13.  Pie  further  took  a  man  of  the  king's  blood,* 
and  made  a  covenant  with  him,  and  took  an  oath  of  him.  He  carried 
away,  also,  the  mighty  of  the  land,  14.  that  it  might  be  weakened, 
and  not  rebel,  but  keep  its  covenant  and  stand.  15.  But  the  man 
revolted,  sending  ambassadors  to  Egypt,  to  ask  that  it  might  give 
him  cavalry  and  a  strong  army.  Shall  he  prosper  (in  his  treach- 
ery) ?  Will  he  escape  that  acts  thus  ?  Shall  he  break  his  covenant  and 
yet  escape  ?  16.  As  I  live,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  he  shall  certainly 
die  (a  prisoner)  in  the  midst  of  Babylon,  where  the  king  lives  who  made 
him  king,  whose  oath  he  despised,  and  whose  covenant  he  broke.  17. 
And  Pharaoh  will  do  nothing  for  him  in  the  war,  and  will  send  no 
great  army,  or  mighty  host  to  fight  for  him,  (as  he  has  promised), 
when  the  mounts  are  thrown  up  and  battering  rams  are  raised  against 
Jerusalem,  to  slay  many !  18.  Zedekiah  has  despised  his  oath,  and  broken 
his  bond,  when,  lo,  he  had  given  his  hand  (for  it),  and  having  done  all 
this,  he  shall  not  escape  !     19.  Therefore,  thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah, 

»  Ezek.  xvii.  7-19. 

2  Pharaoh  Hophra.    The  Egyptian  alliance  is  here  referred  to. 

3  The  C'haldaeans.    For  the  east  wind,  or  sirocco,  see  vol.  v.  p.  348. 
*  Jehoiachin.  ^  Zedekiah. 


A   VOICE   FROM   CHEBAR,  AGAINST   JUDAH.  19 

as  I  live,  I  will  surely  repay  '  oti  liis  own  licad  My  oatli  tliiit  he  has  de- 
spised, and  My  covenant  (hat  he  has  broken.  20.  And  I  will  spread  My 
net  over  him,  and  lie  shall  be  taken  in  My  snare,  and  1  will  bring  him 
to  Babylon,  and  reckon  -  with  him  there  for  his  treachery  that  he  has 
committed  against  Me.  21.  And  all  his  chosen  ones,  and  all  his  forces, 
shall  fall  by  the  sword,  and  those  who  escape  shall  be  scattered  to 
every  wind,  and  ye  shall  know  that  I,  Jehovah,  have  spoken." 

But  though  God  will  thus  bring  on  Zedekiah  and  Judah 
the  punishment  of  their  revolt  against  Chaldsea^  as  a 
sin  against  His  own  Majesty — the  oath  by  Him  having 
been  dishonoured — He  will,  hereafter,  restore  the  kingdom 
of  David,  and  all  men  will  see  that,  though  He  seemed  to 
have  stood  aloof,  and  to  have  left  Israel  without  His  care. 
He  has,  through  all  the  incidents  of  its  bitter  experience, 
been  guiding  the  course  of  things  so  as  to  bring  about  its 
final  prosperity. 

"  22.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah  :  I  will  further  take  of  the  high- 
est branch  ^  of  the  cedar,  and  will  plant  it  :  from  the  highest  of  its 
young  shoots  I  will  pluck  off  a  tender  one,  and  plant  it  on  a  high  and  lofty 
mountain.*  23.  In  the  lofty  mountain  of  Israel  will  I  plant  it,  and  it 
will  send  forth  boughs  and  bear  fruit,  and  be  a  noble  cedar,  and  all 
birds  of  every  kind  will  dwell  under  it  ;  in  the  shadow  of  its  branches 
will  they  dwell.  24.  And  all  the  trees  of  the  field  ^  shall  know  that  it 
was  I,  Jehovah,  who  have  brought  low  the  high  tree  and  exalted  the 
humble  one,®  and  have  made  the  withered  tree  to  flourish  again.  I, 
Jehovah,  have  spoken  and  will  do  it. " 

'  Literally,  "lay."  2  piead.    Ezek.  xvii.  20-24. 

3  '•  Foliage,"  Muhlau  und  Volck.  The  royal  house  of  David  is  meant— the  Messiah 
80  long  expected  being  especially  referred  to. 

*  Zion.  ^  The  heathen  nations. 

8  The  high  tree  is  Zedekiah,  and  includes  also  Jehoiachin.  The  humble  tree  is  the 
now  crushed,  but  then,  once  more  exalted,  Judah. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   CRISIS   AS   IT   APPEARED   TO    EZEKIEL. 

The  great  question  of  the  Divine  relations  to  man^s 
conduct  in  this  life  had  long  been  the  subject  of  agitating 
discussion  and  reflection,  since  social  and  national  trouble 
had  darkened  the  life  of  Judah.  Asaph  had  recorded  his 
perplexities  regarding  it  in  his  famous  psalm/  and  others 
had  followed  in  the  same  strain.  The  Book  of  Job  em- 
bodied the  difficulties  that  clouded  pious  minds,  and  gave 
the  true  solution,  but  to  the  mass  of  men  the  problem  was 
still  dark  and  anxious.  Among  the  multitude,  alike  in 
Judah  and  on  the  Chebar,  the  ways  of  Providence  were  bit- 
terly arraigned  as  unjust.  The  present  generation,  they 
maintained,  though  not  so  guilty  as  others  before  it,  were 
punished,  while  their  fathers  had  escaped.  "  The  fathers, '' 
they  said,  in  a  sententious  way,  ^^ate  sour  grapes,  and  the 
children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge.'^^  Nor  were  specious 
arguments  wanting  to  support  this  self-righteous  commen- 
tary  on   the    experience   of   the   nation,  in  these,  its  last 

1  Psalm  Ixxiii.  Ewald  assigns  it  to  the  Persian  time  ;  Olshausen,  to  the  Macca- 
bean  days.  Cheyne  assigns  it  to  the  close  of  the  Persian,  or  the  beginning  of  the 
Greek  period.  There  are  twelve  psalms  Inscribed  as  composed  by  Asaph,  but  it  is 
certain  that  some  of  them,  at  least,  are  later  than  the  time  of  David's  Asaph.  They 
may  bear  the  name  from  having  been  composed  by  later  members  of  the  famous  clan 
bearing  his  name.     It  was  famous  even  after  the  Return. 

2  Literally,  "blunted,  dulled.'"  Unripe  grapes  are  still  much  eaten  in  Syria,  with 
the  result  that  a  sensation  of  discomfort  in  the  teeth  always  follows  for  a  short  time. 
Delitzsch,  Hiob,  xv.  33.  Prov.  x.  26.  lu  Hor.,  Od.,  III.  vi.  1,  the  same  sentiment  ia 
expressed. 


THE   CRISIS   AS   IT   APPEARED   TO   EZEKIEL.  21 

years.  The  godly  Josiali  had  died  in  his  early  prime,  and 
Zedekiah,  who  was  sinking  amidst  the  ruin  of  his  country, 
had  characteristics  that  drew  forth  the  sympathy  of  even 
such  men  as  Jeremiah.'  The  prophets,  moreover,  often 
spoke  of  the  Divine  judgments  impending,  as  the  results 
of  the  conduct  of  Manasseh,'*  and  the  threats  of  other 
parts  of  Scripture  to  visit  the  punishment  of  sin  on  the 
third  and  fourth  generation,  seemed  to  be  exactly  fulfilled 
on  Josiah  and  his  sons — the  grandson  and  great-grandsons 
of  the  wicked  king/  Nor  was  this  confined  to  individuals. 
The  people  at  large  appeared  as  if  doomed  to  suffer  for  the 
sins  of  their  ancestors.  Josiah^'s  Reformation,  it  might  be 
said,  had  brought  no  blessing,  since  public  misfortune 
dated  from  his  reign.  The  doctrine  of  hereditary  punish- 
ment for  ancestral  guilt,  had  sprang  from  a  misconception 
of  some  verses  of  Scripture,  and  was  at  once  old  and  popu- 
lar." A  wider  study  of  tho  sacred  books  would,  indeed, 
have  led  to  juster  views, ^  but  men  were  too  wretched  to 
think  calmly ;  too  bitter  to  weigh  their  words.  Like  us  all, 
they  were  glad  to  blame  others  rather  than  themselves, 
and  to  take  the  air  of  being  treated  unjustly. 

It  was  of  great  moment,  for  the  vindication  of  the 
eternal  justice  of  God,  that  such  thoughts,  whether  honest 
or  affected,  should  be  challenged,  and  the  great  lesson  en- 
forced that  men  were,  in  reality,  responsible  only  for  their 
own  sins.  This  Ezekiel  did  in  tlie  next  fragment  of  his 
preaching  that  remains  to  us. 

•  Jer.  xxxviii. 

2  2  Kings  xxiii.  26  ;  xxiv.  3.    Jer.  xv.  4  ;  xxxii.  18.    Lam.  v.  7. 

s  Exod.  XX.  5  ;  xxxiv.  7.  Lev.  xxvi.  39.  Num.  xiv.  18-33.  Deut.  v.  9.  Isa.  xiv. 
21 ;  Ixv.  7.    Jer.  ii.  9. 

••  Gen.  ix.  25.  2  Sam.  xxi.  Ps.  cix.  14.  Job  xxi.  19.  Matt,  xxvii.  25.  John  ix.  2. 
Jer.  xviii.  19. 

6  2  Kings  xiv.  6.    Deut.  xxiv.  IS. 


22  THE   CRISIS    AS   IT   APPEARED   TO   EZEKIEL. 

"  XVIII.  1.  The  word  of  Jehovah  '  came  to  me  again,  saying  :  2. 
What  do  you  mean  by  this  proverb  in  the  Land  of  Israel  :  '  The 
fathers  ate  sour  grapes  and  the  teeth  of  the  sons  are  set  on  edge '  ?  3. 
Asl  live,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  ye  shall  not  use  this  proverb  any 
more  in  Israel.  4.  For  all  souls  are  Mine ;  as  the  soul  of  the  father,  so 
that  of  the  son,  is  Mine.     The  soul  that  sins,  it  v^ill  die ! 

"  5.  But  if  a  man  be  just,  and  do  what  is  lawful  and  right;  6.  if  he 
have  not  eaten  (heathsn  sacrifices  on  the  high  places)  on  the  hills,  nor 
lifted  up  his  eyes  (in  worship)  to  the  loathsome  gods  of  the  house  of 
Israel,  nor  defiled  his  neighbour's  wife,  nor  approached  an  unclean 
woman,  7.  nor  oppressed  any  one ;  if  he  have  returned  to  the  (poor) 
debtor  the  pledge  (given  by  him) ;  ^  if  he  has  taken  goods  from  no  one 
by  fraud  and  injustice, ^  if  he  has  given  his  bread  to  the  hungry,  and 
covered  the  naked  with  clothing  ;  8.  if  he  has  not  lent  on  usury,"  or 
taken  interest ;  ^  if  he  has  kept  back  his  hand  from  iniquity,  and  has 
given  honest  judgment  between  man  and  man  (in  their  disputes) ;  9.  if 
he  has  walked  in  My  laws  and  kept  My  commands,  acting  truly  in  all 
things — he  is  just;  he  will  surely  live,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah! 

"  10.  If,  however,  such  a  man  beget  a  son  who  turns  a  robber,  or  a 
shedder  of  blood,  or  does  any  one  of  the  sins  I  have  named,  11.  and 
does  none  of  the  duties  I  have  recited,  but  has,  instead,  eaten  (idol- 
meats  at  the  high  places)  on  the  hills,  defiled  his  neighbour's  wife,  12. 
oppressed  the  poor  and  needy,  taken  away  men's  goods  by  fraud  or 
injustice,  lifted  up  his  eyes  (in  worship)  to  the  loathsome  gods,  com- 
mitted abomination,  13.  lent  money  on  usury,  and  taken  interest  ; 
shall  he,  then,  live  ?  He  shall  not  live  !  He  has  committed  all  these 
abominations.     To  death  with  him  !     His  blood  lies  on  himself! 

"  14.  But  if  this  ungodly  son  beget  a  son  who  sees  all  his  father's 
sins  which  he  has  done  ;  (sees  them),  and  keeps  from  doing  them ;  15, 
if  he  has  not  eaten  (idol-meats  at  the  high  places)  on  the  hills,  nor 
lifted  up  his  eyes  to  the  loathsome  idols  of  the  house  of  Israel  (in  wor- 
ship), nor  defiled  his  neighbour's  wife,  16.  nor  oppressed  any  one,  nor 
kept  back  any  pledge,  nor  spoiled  any  one  of  his  goods  by  fraud  or 
injustice,  but  has  given  his  bread  to  the  hungry,  covered  the  naked 
with  clothing,  17.  kept  back  his  hand  from  iniquity,  taken  no  usury  or 

1  Ezek.  xviii.  1-17. 

2  Exod.  xxii.  25.    Deut.  xxiv.  12.    Amos  ii.  8. 

3  Lev.  vi.  4. 

*  Advances  to  men  on  their  crops,  etc.,  are  meant 

*  This  was  forbidden,  at  least  between  Israelites.  Ezek.  xviii.  18.  Neh.  v.  7, 10,  fE. 
See  also  Exod.  xxii.  25.    Deut.  xxiii.  20.    Lev.  xxv.  36.    Prov.  xxviii.  8.     Ps.  xv.  5. 


THE   CRISIS   AS   IT   APPEARED   TO    EZEKIEL.  23 

interest,  but  kept  My  commands  and  walked  in  My  laws;  he  shall  not 
die  for  his  father's  sin.     He  shall  surely  live  ! 

"  18.  His  father,  however,'  because  he  cruelly  oppressed,  robbed  his 
brother  (Hebrew)  by  fraud  and  injustice,  and  did  what  was  not  good 
among  his  fellow  tribesmen, ^  behold,  he  shall  die  for  his  iniquity. 

*'  19.  But  do  ye  still  say,  '  Why  does  not  the  son  bear  a  share  of  the 
father's  sin  ? '  (I  answer,)  If  the  son  has  done  only  what  is  lawful  and 
right,  and  has  kept  all  My  laws,  and  obeyed  them,  he  shall  surely  live! 

"  20.  The  soul  that  sins,  it  shall  die.  But  a  son  shall  not  bear  any 
part  of  his  father's  sin,  nor  shall  the  father  bear  any  part  of  the  son's 
sin.  The  righteousness  of  the  righteous  shall  rest  on  him,  and  the 
wickedness  of  the  wicked  shall  rest  upon  him. 

"21.  But  if  the  wicked  turn  from  all  his  sins  that  he  has  committed, 
and  keep  all  My  laws,  and  do  what  is  lawful  and  right — he  shall 
surely  live.  He  shall  not  die.  22.  All  his  transgressions  that  he  has 
committed  shall  not  be  remembered  against  him.  He  shall  live,  for 
the  righteousness  he  has  done.  23.  Have  I  any  pleasure  (do  you 
think)  in  the  death  of  the  wicked  ?  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah.  Would  I 
not  much  rather  that  he  turn  from  his  ways  and  live  ? 

"  24.  When  (on  the  other  hand)  the  righteous  turns  away  from  his 
righteousness  and  commits  iniquity,  doing  according  to  all  that  the 
wicked  does — shall  he  live  ?  (No  !)  All  his  righteousness  that  he  has 
done  shall  not  be  remembered.  For  his  unfaithfulness  that  he  has 
committed,  and  for  his  sin  that  he  has  sinned,  for  them — he  shall  die. 

*'  25.  Nevertheless  ye  say :  ^  The  way  of  the  Lord  is  not  right.*  Hear, 
now,  O  house  of  Israel,  is  not  My  way  right  ?  Are  not  your  ways 
wrong  ?  26.  If  the  righteous  turn  away  from  his  righteousness,  and 
commits  iniquity,  and  dies  for  it — then  he  dies  for  the  iniquity  that  he 
has  committed.  27.  But  if  the  wicked  turn  away  from  the  wickedness 
that  he  has  committed,  and  does  that  which  is  lawful  and  right,  he 
shall  i)i-eserve  his  soul  alive.  28.  Because  he  sees  and  turns  away  from 
all  his  transgressions  that  he  has  commitLed,  he  shall  surely  live — he 
shall  not  die.  29.  Yet  the  house  of  Israel  says :  *  The  way  of  the  Lord 
is  not  right.'  0  house  of  Israel,  are  not  My  ways  right  ?  Are  not 
your  ways  wrong  ? 

"30.  Therefore,  I  will  judge  you,  every  one  according  to  his  ways, 
saith  the  Lord  Jehovah.     Repent,  and  turn  from  all  your  transgres- 

1  Ezek.  xviii.  18-30.  2  Lev.  xix.  16. 

3  The  name  of  (Jod  translated  in  the  text  "  the  Lord  Jehovah,"  is,  in  the  Hebrew, 
"  Adonai  .leliovah/' 
*  Literally,  "  evenly  poised."    It  may  mean,  "  consistent  at  all  times." 


24  THE   CRISIS   AS   IT   APPEAIiEl)   TO   EZEKIEL. 

sions,  that  your  sin  may  not  cause  your  punishment.  31.  Cast  away 
from  you  all  your  transgressions,'  in  which  you  have  sinned,  and  make 
for  yourselves  a  new  heart  and  a  new  spirit  !  For  why  will  ye  die,  O 
liouse  of  Israel  ?  32.  For  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  him  that 
dies,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah.     Therefore,  turn  ye — and  live  !  " 

In  these  anxious,  agitated  years,  when  the  exiles  in 
Babylonia,  like  watchers  by  the  death-bed  of  the  State, 
could  think  or  speak  of  little  else  but  the  land  they  had 
left  for  ever — its  old  glories,  its  present  sorrows — their 
poets  doubtless  sang  the  bright  memories  of  the  one,  and 
the  touching  story  of  the  others,  in  many  a  lyric  and 
lament.  Ezekiel,  a  true  patriot,  like  all  the  prophets, 
unburdened  his  heart  in  a  lament  over  the  two  kings  of 
his  race  then  captive — the  one  in  Egypt,  the  other  in 
Babylon — and  over  the  city  which,  like  every  Jew,  he  loved 
with  a  passionate  tenderness.  He  had  spoken  of  the  inevi- 
table ruin  of  his  fatherland  through  its  sins,  and  the  fate 
of  the  country  brought  up  in  his  mind  that  of  its  princes 
— the  living  dead — whose  glory  had  faded,  whose  eyes 
should  never  again  behold  Jerusalem,  whose  palace  had 
been  exchanged  for  a  prison  !  In  a  touching  elegy,  he 
compares  Judah,  the  mother  of  kings,  to  a  lioness  lying 
down  amidst  others  of  its  kind — the  kingdoms  round  it. 
Her  successive  generations  of  young  and  brave  princes  are 
lions'  whelps,  coming  on  in  due  time  to  full  growth,  as 
crowned  kings.  Two,  in  particular,  arrest  his  thoughts — 
each  in  his  turn  snared  by  the  hunters  and  carried  off  cap- 
tive— Jehoahaz  and  Jehoiachin,  or  Zedekiah,  one  hardly 
knows  which. 

"XIX.  2.  What  was  thy  mother  (0  Judah)? — he  sang — a  lioness 
which  lay  down  among  lions,  and  nourished  her  young  amidst  other 

»  Ezek.  xviii.  81-32 ;  xix.  1-2. 


THE   CRISIS   AS   IT   APPEARED   TO   EZEKIEL.  25 

young  lion?:.'  8.  And  she  brought  up  one  of  her  whelps  (till)  he 
became  a  young  lion,^  and  learned  to  catch- prey,  and  became  a  man- 
eater.  4.  But  the  nations  heard  of  him;  he  was  taken  in  their  pit, ^ 
and  tliey  brought  him  with  rings  in  his  jaws  *  to  the  land  of  Egypt.* 

'•5.  Then,  when  she  saw  that  he  was  banished  from  her,  and  that 
lier  Hope  was  lost  and  gone,  she  took  another  of  her  young  (and 
brought  him  up),  and  he,  also,  became  a  young  lion.  6.  And  he  went 
to  and  fro  among  the  lions,  and  was  himself  a  young  lion,  and 
learned  to  catch  prey,  and  became  a  man-eater.  7.  He  brought  evil 
to  the  palaces  (of  neighbouring  kings),  and  laid  waste  their  cities;  the 
land  was  desolate;  its  multitude  (fleeing  in  terror)  at  the  noise  of  his 
roar." 

"8.  Yet  the  nations,  from  many^  countries,  set  themselves  against 
him  round  about,  and  spread  their  net  over  him  and  took  him  in  their 
pit.  9.  Then  they  put  him  in  a  cage,  with  rings  in  his  jaws,  and 
brought  him  to  the  king  of  Babylon ;  they  brought  him  into  a  dungeon, 
that  his  voice  should  no  more  be  heard  on  the  mountains  of  Israel.'"* 

Such  was  the  fate  of  the  kings ;  that  of  the  people  was 
to  he  equaHy  disastrous.  Israel  had  been  a  powerful  nation, 
ruling  for  a  time  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Mediterranean, 
and  boasting  a  line  of  kings,  who,  in  Judah,  had  sat  on  the 
throne,  in  continuous  descent  from  David,  for  nearly  five 

*  The  kings  of  Judah  were  not  behind  the  princes  of  other  countries  round. 

2  Gen.  xiix.  9.  The  "  young  lion"  is  the  animal  in  its  young  vigour.  Ezek.  xix. 
3-9.  ^  A  common  way  of  taking  lions. 

*  Isa.  xxxvii.  29.  Wild  beasts  were  led  by  rings  in  their  nostrils  or  jaws,  and  cap- 
tives whom  it  was  specially  wished  to  insult  were  treated  in  the  same  way.  See  vol. 
V.  p.  87  ;  also  Isa.  xxxvii.  29.  Ezek.  xxxviii.  4  ;  xxix.  4.  2  Kings  xix.  28.  2  Chron. 
xxxiii.ll. 

6  Jehoahaz  is  alluded  to.  He  was  carried  off  to  Egypt  by  Necho,  after  his  father 
Josiah'a  death  at  Megiddo. 

«  This  could  hardly  be  applied,  except  by  poetic  license,  to  Jehoiachin  (Jeconiah), 
who  reigned  only  three  months.  Zedekiah  may  have  been  engaged  in  wars  ;  his 
predecessors  had  no  opportunity  for  them.  If,  however,  the  language  be  taken  as 
that  of  poetry,  the  lament  would  suit  Jehoiachin  better  than  Zedekiah,  for  the  former 
was  appointed  king  by  his  countrymen  ;  the  latter  was  a  Chaldsean  nominee.  Ezekiel, 
moreover,  seems  to  have  regarded  Jehoiachin  as  the  legitimate  king  on  this  account. 
Ezek.  xvii.  1.  Besides,  he  bitterly  denounced  the  breach  of  oath  by  Zedekiah,  and 
on  this  ground  shewed  him  no  respect.  ">  Literally,  "  the." 

"  Nothing  is  known  of  the  place  of  imprisonment  of  either  Jehoiachin  or  Zedekiah 
in  Babylon. 


26  THE    CRISIS   AS    IT   APPEARED   TO    EZEKIEL. 

hundred  3^ears.  Its  pride  and  sin,  however,  had  brought 
terrible  punishment.  Ten  tribes,  out  of  twelve,  had  been 
exiles  in  a  distant  land  for  nearly  a  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
and  Judah  itself  had  seen  the  flower  of  its  people  carried 
off  to  Babylonia.  What  remained  of  its  glory  was  fast  wan- 
ing ;  the  now  feeble  State  was  tottering  to  its  final  ruin. 

These  ideas  the  prophet  embodies  in  his  former  image  of 
the  fatherland  as  a  once  lordly  vine,  the  Avood  of  which  had 
been  so  massive  as  to  serve  for  kingly  sceptres.  In  its  pride 
it  had  shot  out  its  branches  far  and  near,  but  the  burning 
sirocco  had  been  let  loose  on  it ;  its  stout  branches  had 
withered  and  been  broken  off,  and  fire  had  consumed  it. 

"  XIX.  10.  Thy  mother  *  [i)  Tudah)  mightest  thou  further  compare  to 
a  vine  ^  planted  in  (the  time  oi)  thy  rest,  in  a  garden  land,  by  the  waters. 
She  was  fruitful  and  had  many  branches  by  reason  of  the  abundance 
of  water;  11.  its  boughs  grew  so  thick  they  made  sceptres  for  rulers, 
and  its  height  rose  towering  amidst  the  clouds ;  so  glorious  did  it  seem 
in  its  loftiness,  in  the  multitude  of  its  branches !  ^ 

"  12.  But  (the  wrath  of  God,  like  a  tempest  from  heaven,)  rooted  it 
up,  and  cast  it  to  the  ground,  and  the  (burning)  sirocco  from  the  desert 
dried  up  its  fruit;  its  strong  branches  were  broken  off  and  withered; 
the  fire  consumed  them.     13.  And  now  it  is  planted  in  the  wilderness,* 

1  Ezek.  xix.  10-18. 

2  This  clause  is  variously  translated ;  different  emendations  being  given  of  the 
words,  "  in  thj-^  blood,''  which  are  apparently  a  corruption  of  the  text.  I  adopt  the 
renderings  of  De  Wette,  Keil,  and  Ewald,  conjointly. 

s  "  It  was  seen  far  and  near  from  its  height  and  the  multitude  of  its  branches.'"— 
Smend.  The  ancient  sceptre  (Shabet)  and  the  staff  (Matteh),  used  as  a  sign  of  rank 
by  heads  of  tribes,  clans,  and  encampments,  by  judges  and  others,  was  a  simple  rod, 
in  its  natural  state— the  leaves  and  twigs  only  removed.  The  Arab  Sheiks  and  the 
Mohammedan  Mufti  and  Ulemas— the  equivalent  to  our  clergy-  stil'  carry  such  a  rude 
staff,  as  high  as  themselves,  never  appearing  in  public  without  it.  When  office  is 
hereditary,  as  in  the  case  of  Sheiks,  the  staff  passes  from  father  to  son  till  it  is  worn 
quite  thin  where  the  hand  has  grasped  it.  It  was  this  ancestral  chieftain's  staff  on 
which  Jacob  leaned  in  worship  (Gen.  xlvii.  31) ;  and  the  rods  of  Moses  and  Aaron 
were,  in  the  same  way,  tlie  ordinary  signs  of  official  dignity.  Tamar  demanded  tliis 
Matteli  from  Judah— knowing  its  special  worth  as  an  unmistakable  means  of  identi- 
fying  him,  and  even  with  this  he  parted  for  the  time.    Gen.  xxxviii.  18. 

♦  Eiiled. 


THE    CRISIS    AS    IT   APPEARED   TO    EZEKIEL.  27 

in  a  dry  and  thirsty  land,  14.  and  fire  has  gone  from  its  branches  (so 
rich  in  shoots)/  and  has  devoured  its  fruit,  so  that  it  has  no  longer  any 
lordly  rod  for  a  sceptre  to  rule. 

"All  this  may  well  raise  a  song  of  lamentation,  now  and  for 
ever!" 

A  long  discourse,  delivered  by  Ezekiel  in  August,  B.C. 
592,^"  the  fourth  year  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
and  the  seventh  of  the  captivity  of  King  Jeconiah,  has 
fortunately  been  preserved.  As  was  their  custom  from 
time  to  time,  since  the  prophet  did  not  appear  in  public, 
some  of  the  elders  of  the  Hebrew  settlement  on  the 
Chebar  came  to  him,  '^  to  enquire  of  Jehovah  ;  "  sitting 
down,  in  Eastern  fashion,  on  the  mats  on  the  floor  of  the 
room,  while  he  rested  on  the  divan  or  sofa-like  ledge  that 
ran  along  its  side.  He  had  previously  told  them,'  that 
God  would  have  no  relations  with  insincere  worshippers, 
outwardly  paying  Him  homage  while  in  heart  idolaters, 
and  he  repeated  this  now.*  As  long  as  they  were  still 
heathen  in  spirit,  they  could  expect  no  communications 
from  Jehovah,  through  His  j^rophet.  The  opportunity  to 
bring  their  sins,  and  those  of  the  people  at  large,  once 
more  under  notice  was,  nevertheless,  too  favourable  to  be 
lost.  The  impulse  "  to  judge  them,^^  by  rehearsing  anew 
the  sins  laid  to  their  charge,  and  proclaiming  afresh  the 
certain  result,  was  irresistible.  How  best  to  rouse  tlieir 
conscience  must  have  been  a  matter  of  anxious  thought ; 
perhaps  if  he  recalled  to  their  minds  the  sins  of  their  fore- 
fathers and  its  terrible  punishment,  the  vivid  parallel  to 
their  own  case  might  arrest  them.  Addressing  them, 
therefore,  he  thus  began,  speaking  in  the  name  of 
God: 

>  Ezek.  xix.  14.  ^  Sim-iHl  says  b.c.  590. 

»  Ezek.  xiv.  1-11.  *  Ezek.  xx.  1-4. 


28  THE   CRISIS   AS   IT   APPEARED   TO   EZEKIEL. 

"XX.  5.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah:'  In  the  day  that  I  chose 
Israel,  and  lifted  up  My  hand  (in  an  oath)  to  the  seed  of  the  house  of 
Jacob  (that  I  would  be  their  God),  and  revealed  Myself  to  them  in  the 
land  of  Egypt,  2  when  I  lifted  up  My  hand  to  them,  swearing  by  Myself, 
'  I  am  Jehovah  your  God  ;''—'>.  even  in  that  day,  when  I  lifted  up 
My  hand  thus  to  thera,  promising  that  I  would  lead  them  forth  from 
Egypt,*  to  a  land  I  had  looked  out  for  them — a  land  flowing  with 
milk  and  honey,  the  glory  of  all  lands ^ — 7.  I  said  to  them — 'Cast  ye 
away,  every  man,  the  abominable  gods  to  which  he  looks,  and  do  not 
defile  yourselves  with  the  loathsome  gods  of  Egypt.®  I  am  Jehovah, 
your  God.'  8.  But  they  were  disobedient,  and  would  not  hearken  to 
Me ;  they  did  not,  every  man,  cast  away  the  abominable  gods  to  which 
they  looked,  nor  did  they  forsake  the  loathsome  gods  of  Egypt.  For 
this,  therefore,  I  threatened  to  pour  out  My  wrath  on  them,  and  to  let 
loose  My  anger  against  them,  in  the  land  of  Egypt. 

*'  9.  Yet  I  acted  for  (the  honour  of)  My  own  name,  so  that  it  should 
not  be  dishonoured  before  the  heathen,  in  whose  midst  they  were,  in 
whose  sight  I  had  revealed  Myself  to  them,  as  about  to  bring  tliem 
forth  from  the  land  of  Egypt.^  10.  I  led  them,  therefore,  forth  from 
the  land  of  Egypt,  and  brought  them  into  the  wilderness.  11.  And 
(at  Sinai)  I  gave  them  My  laws,  and  made  known  to  them  My  statutes, 
by  which,  if  a  man  do  them,  he  shall  live."  12.  I  also  gave  them  My 
Sabbaths,  to  be  a  sign  between  Me  and  them,  that  it  was  I,  Jehovah, 
who  sanctify  them  (by  these  holy  seasons  ;  bringing  them  thus  into 
special  communion  with  Myself).'     13.  But  the  house  of  Israel  rebelled 

1  Ezek.  XX.  5-13.  ^  Exod.  iii.  8  ;  iv.  31.    Deut,  iv.  34. 

3  Exod.  XX.  2. 

4  Exod.  iii.  8-17.    Deut.  viii.  7,  9.    Jer.  xxxii.  23. 
^  Ps.  xlviii.  2.    Dan,  viii.  9.    Zech.  vii.  14. 

^  Lev.  xvii.  7  ;  xviii.  3. 

7  Exod.  xxxii.  12.    Num.  xiv.  16.    Deut.  ix.  28. 

8  Lev.  xviii.  5.    Deut.  xxx,  16. 

"  Wellliausen  {Gesch.  Israel,  vol.  i.  p.  117)  would  have  us  believe  that  the  Sabbath 
was  originallj^  a  day  of  festivity,  and  only  gradually  darkened  into  gloom  under 
priestly  influence  during  the  exile.  The  agony  of  the  Shunammite  widow  at  the 
death  of  her  son  (3  Kings  iv.  22\  leading  her  to  order  her  ass  for  an  instant  journey 
TO  the  prophet,  is  taken  as  a  proof  that  journeys  longer  than  legal  on  Sabbaths  were 
then  common,  and  that  daily  occupations  were  not  forbidden.  Fordoes  not  the  ser- 
vant answer  that  it  is  neither  new  moon  nor  Sabbath?  In  Hos.  ii.  11  it  is  said, 
"I  will  cause  all  her  mirth  to  cease,  her  feast  days,  her  new  moons,  her  sabbaths, 
and  all  her  solemn  feasts."  In  Amos  the  extortioners  of  Samaria  long  for  the  Sab- 
bath to  sell  their  grain  (viii.  5).  Are  not  these,  we  are  asked,  proofs  that  the  Sab- 
bath was  anciently  a  day  of  rejoicing  and  worldly  business  ?    As  if  a  modest  joy 


THE  CRISIS   AS   IT   APPEAKED   TO    EZEKIEL.  29 

against  Me  in  the  wilderness ;  they  did  not  follow  My  laws,  and  they 
despised  My  statutes,  by  which  a  man  shall  live,  if  he  do  them  ;  and 
they  grossly  dishonoured  INIy  Sabbaths,  so  that  I  said  I  would  pour  out 
My  indignation  upon  them  in  the  wilderness,  to  destroy  them. 

"  14.  But  I  acted  for  the  honour  '  of  My  name,  so  that  it  should  not 
be  polluted  before  the  heathen,  in  whose  sight  I  had  brought  them 
forth  from  Egypt.  15.  Yet  I  lifted  up  My  hand  to  them  in  the 
wilderness  (in  solemn  asseveration),  that  I  would  not  bring  them  into 
the  land  which  I  had  given  them — a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey 
— the  glory  of  all  lands!  16.  because  they  despised  My  statutes  and 
did  not  walk  in  My  laws,  and  dishonoured  My  Sabbaths,  for  their 
hearts  went  after  their  loathsome  gods.  17.  But  My  eye  spared  them, 
so  that  1  did  not  utterly  destroy  them,  or  make  an  end  of  them  (alto- 
gether) in  the  wilderness." 

' '  18.  But  (though  the  fathers  were  condemned  to  die  in  the  wilder- 
ness) I  said  to  their  sons,  '  Walk  ye  not  in  the  laws  of  your  fathers, 
nor  observe  their  statutes,  nor  defile  yourselves  with  their  loathsome 
gods.  19.  I  am  Jehovah,  your  God;  walk  in  My  laws,  and  keep  My 
statutes,  and  do  them ;  20.  and  hallow  My  Sabbaths,  that  they  may  be 
a  sign  between  Me  and  you,  that  ye  may  know  that  I,  Jehovah,  am 
your  God.'  21.  Yet  these  sons  (like  their  fathers)  rebelled  against 
Me,  and  did  not  walk  in  My  laws,  or  keep  My  statutes,  to  do  them,  by 
which,  if  a  man  keep  them,  he  shall  live,  and  they  dishonoured  My 
Sabbaths.  Then  I  told  them  that  I  would  pour  out  My  indigna- 
tion upon  them,  and  let  loose  My  anger  against  them  in  the  wilder- 
ness. 

"  22.  Nevertheless,  I  held  back  My  hand,  and  acted  for  the  honour 
of  My  name,  that  it  should  not  be  dishonoured  in  the  sight  of  the 
heathen,  before  whom  I  had  brought  them  forth  (from  Egypt).  23. 
But  I  lifted  up  My  hand  to  them  in  the  wilderne.='s  (once  more,  and 

were  incompatible  with  the  right  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  or  the  worldliness  of 
extortioners  an  illustration  of  its  proper  use  !  That  it  is  said,  moreover,  in  Exodus 
and  Deuteronomy  that  the  labourer  and  his  beast  are  to  rest  on  the  Sabbath,  while  It 
is  not  said  (?)  that  the  master  should  ret^t !  shews  that  the  idea  of  the  day  as  one  of 
universal  rest  must  be  later!  It  is  on  such  arguments  as  these  that  the  origin  of 
Exodus,  Leviticus,  and  Numbers— or  nearly  the  whole  of  them— during  the  Captiv- 
ity, is  assumed  as  demonstrated.  As  if  the  lax  i)ractice  could  not  naturally  come  in 
by  degrees,  and  be  uprooted  only  by  a  reattion  such  as  the  exile  produced  !  Of 
course,  however,  while  repudiatinti:  the  insinuation  that  the  ancient  Jewish  Sabbath 
was  a  mere  boisterous  holiday,  I  do  not  forget  that  the  superstitious  and  painful 
slavery,  which  the  Rabbis  invented  as  its  proper  observance,  was  then  unknown. 

»  Ezek.  XX.  14-23. 

a  Only  that  geueratiuu  wad  to  periuh  in  the  wilderness. 


30  THE  CRISIS   AS   IT  APPEARED    TO   EZEKIEL. 

solemnly  swore)  that  I  would  scatter  therL  among  the  heathen,  and 
disperse  them  through  the  lands,  ^  24.  because  they  had  not  obeyed  My 
statutes,  2  but  had  despised  My  laws,  and  dishonoured  My  Sabbaths, 
and  their  hearts  had  gone  after  the  loathsome  gods  of  their  fathers. 
25.  And  (since  they  would  not  observe  My  good  laws),  I  (afterwards, 
when  they  had  entered  Canaan)  gave  them  laws  that  were  not  good  (as 
Mine  are),  and  statutes  by  which  they  should  not  live — (statutes  leading 
to  death,  not  to  life,  as  Mine  do — 26,  that  is,  I  left  them  to  follow  the 
heathenism  of  Canaan),  and  polluted  them  in  their  own  offerings,  by 
giving  them  up  to  sacrifice  their  first-born  sons  to  Moloch,  that  I  might 
appal  them  at  their  own  conduct,  and  that  they  might  know  that  I  am 
Jehovah  !  ^ 

"27.  Therefore,  speak  to  the  house  of  Israel,  0  son  of  man,  and 
say  to  them:  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  Your  fathers  still  further 
sinned  against  Me  by  acting  treacherously  towards  Me.  28.  For, 
when  I  had  brought  them  into  the  land  which  I  had  sworn  to  give 
them,*  they  looked  on  every  high  hill  and  every  thickly  leaved  t~&e, 
and  there  offered  their  sacrifices,  and  presented  the  bitter  offence  of 
their  offerings  :  ^  and  burnt  their  sweet-smelling  incense,  and  poured 
out  their  drink  offerings  (to  their  idols)  29.  till  men  came  to  say,  '  What 
is  the  Bamah — the  high  place — to  which  ye  go  up  ? '  (But  it  was  the 
spot  to  which  those  bent  on  uncleanness  betake  themselves),  and  thus 
its  name  is  Bamah  (in  this  sense)  to  this  day.^ 

"30.  Therefore,  say  to  the  house  of  Israel,  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jeho- 
vah: Are  you  polluted  in  the  same  way  as  your  fathers?     Do  you 


>  Lev.  xxvi.    Deut.  xxviii.  2  Ezek.  xx.  24-30. 

3  Smend  actually  ventures  to  quote  this  verse  as  proving  that  Jehovah  instituted 
human  sacrifices  !  Ewald  very  justly  refers  the  hard  laws  to  the  claim  by  Jehovah  of 
all  the  first-born  (Exod.  xiii.  11-13),  "  which  the  prophet  speaks  of  as  a  defiling,  be- 
cause it  was  a  short  step  from  this  to  offering  first-born  sons  to  Moloch  (see  ver.  31). 
and  because  this  often  happened  "  through  a  perversion  of  the  Divine  law,  which  im- 
posed only  a  slight  redemption  money  on  the  parents,  in  lieu  of  the  claim  on  their 
child.  See  Lev.  xviii.  21  ;  Deut.  xviii.  10.  Compare,  for  language  similar  to  that  of 
Ezjkiel,  Rom.  i.  24  ;  Acts  vii.  42  ;  2  Thess,  ii.  11.  Jerome  says,  "  God  gave  them, 
when  dispersed  among  the  nations,  laws  that  were  not  good— that  is,  He  gave  them 
up  to  their  own  thoughts  and  desires,  that  they  should  do  what  was  not  for  their 
good,"  ad  loc.  As  to  the  relation  of  God  to  human  sacrifices,  see  Jer.  vii.  31  ;  xxxii. 
35,  and  other  passages. 

■*  Literally,  "  lifted  up  My  t  and."  ^  Their  "  corban." 

*"  Balm,  "  those  going  up,"  from  the  verb  "to  come,"  w^as  taken  in  a  bad  sense, 
as  implying  "  coming  to  coj  imit  fornication,"  and  was  used  in  thisM'ay  as  a  verbal 
play  on  the  word  "  Bamah,'  a  high  place.  To  go  thither  and  to  commit  uncleannesi 
t^ere  assumed  as  identical. 


THE    CRISIS    AS    IT    APPEARED   TO    EZEKIEL.  31 

commit  iincleanncss  with  your  abominable  idols?  31.  Do  you  defile 
yourselves  to  this  day  with  all  your  loathsome  gods,'  presenting  them 
your  offerings,  and  making  your  sons  pass  through  the  fire  to  them — 
and  shall  I  (allow  Myself  to)  be  inquired  of  by  you,  0  house  of  Israel? 
As  I  live,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  I  will  not  (allow  Myself  to)  be  in- 
quired of  by  you.  32.  And  what  you  think  in  your  minds,  '  that  you 
will  be  like  the  heathen— like  the  people  of  other  countries — and  wor-" 
ship  wood  and  stone,'  shall  not  come  to  pass.  33.  As  I  live,  saith  the 
Lord  Jehovah,  I  will  be  King  over  you,  yes,  with  a  mighty  hand,  and 
an  outstretched  arm,  and  with  an  outpouring  of  fierce  indignation  ; 

34.  and  I  will  lead  you  fortli  from  among  the  peoples,  and  gather  you 
from  the  countries  where  you  are  scattered,  with  a  mighty  hand  and 
an  outstretched  arm,  and  with  an  outpouring  of  fierce  indignation, 

35.  and  will  bring  you  into  the  wilderness  of  the  nations  '■^  (between 
Canaan  and  Babylon),  and  there  will  I  hold  judgment  on  you,  face  to 
face.  36.  As  T  held  judgment  on  your  fathers  in  the  wilderness  (be- 
tween Canaan  and  Egypt),  so  I  will  hold  judgment  on  you,  saith  the 
Lord  Jehovah!  37.  (And  I  will  there  carefully  separate  the  good  from 
the  bad,  as  a  shepherd,  standing  at  the  gate  of  the  fold),  lets  his  sheep 
pass  out  under  his  staff  (one  by  one,  to  count  their  number  and  see 
their  state) ;  and  I  will  bring  you  under  the  yoke  of  My  (new)  cove- 
nant,^ 38.  and  I  will  separate  from  among  you  the  rebellious,  and 
those  who  sin  against  Me.  And  I  will  bring  those  from  the  land  of 
their  sojourning,  where  they  are  exiles,*  but  these  shall  not  enter  into 
the  land  of  Israel ;  that  ye  may  know  that  I  am  Jehovah !  " 

But  God  will  not  cast  off  His  people  for  ever ! 

"39.  As  for  you,  O  house  of  Israel;  thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah: 
Go,  serve  every  one,  his  loathsome  gods;  yet,  hereafter,  ye  will  surely 
hearken  to  Me,  and  not  pollute  My  holy  name  any  more  with  your 
(idolatrous)  offerings,  and  with  your  loathsome  gods;*  40.  for  on  My 
holy  mountain  (Zion);  on  the  lofty  mountain  of  Israel,  saith  the  Lord 

1  Ezek.  XX.  31-40. 

2  Wliere  many  peoples— Syrians,  Arabs,  and  others,  from  all  parts— pass  and  re- 
pass. 

3  This,  which  is  the  literal  rendering  as  the  text  stands,  does  not  appear  to  some 
a  suitable  sense.  Various  emendations  have  therefore  been  proposed.  Hitzig  pro- 
poses, "into  the  purifying  crucible."  The  Septuagint  reads,  "I  will  bring  you  in 
by  number."  Smimd  conjectures  that  the  words  should  run,  "  I  bring  you,  when 
numbered,  or  by  number,  into  the  land."  <  Rosenmuller.     Schroedc". 

*  The  text  demands  this  emendation,  which  is  supported  by  Ewald,  Hiiveruick, 
Keil,  and  '  *•  *^— that  is,  by  men  of  all  shades  of  opinion.    Arnheim  renders  the 


33  THE   CRISIS   AS   IT   APPEARED   TO   EZEKIEL. 

Jehovah;  there,  t!;li;ill  all  the  house  of  Israel  servo  Me,  all  of  them  in 
the  (holy)  land;  there,  will  I  receive  tiiem  (when  they  approach  Me 
in  worship),  and  there  will  I  (Myself)  call  for  their  heave  offerings,  and 
your  choicest  gifts,  of  all  you  consecrate  to  Me  J  41.  With  your  sweet 
odour  (of  worthy  offerings)  will  I  accept  you,^  when  I  lead  you  forth 
from  the  nations,  and  gather  you  out  of  the  countries  in  which  you 
have  been  scattered,  and  I  will  shew  myself  holy  (in  My  dealings 
towards  you),  in  the  eyes  of  the  heathen.  42.  And  ye  shall  know  that 
I  am  Jehovah,  when  I  bring  you  into  the  land  of  Israel,  the  land  which 
I  swore  ^  to  give  to  your  fathers.  43.  And  then  ye  shall  remember 
your  ways,  and  all  your  doings,  by  which  ye  have  defiled  yourselves, 
and  ye  will  loathe  yourselves  in  your  own  eyes,  for  all  your  sins  that 
ye  have  committed.  44.  And  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah,  when 
I  deal  with  you  (in  mercy,  and)  for  My  name's  sake ;  not  according  to 
your  corrupt  doings,  0  hoiise  of  Israel,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah ! " 

But  it  was  of  no  avail  that  Ezekiel  preached  thus  on  the 
Chebar,  or  Jeremiah  in  Jerusalem.  The  Egyptian  party 
had  gained  the  upper  hand,  alike  in  Babylonia  and  in 
Judah,  and  Zedekiah  was  being  steadily  pushed  to  open 
revolt.  Another  series  of  appeals  of  the  banished  prophet 
to  his  fellow-exiles  has  come  down  to  us,  and  shews  that 
the  people  still  cherished  a  vain  hope  of  shaking  off  the 
Chaldsean  vassalage.  The  addresses  seem  to  have  been  de- 
livered in  the  third  and  second  year  *  before  the  fall  of  the 
Holy  City,  when  Babylon  was  already  on  the  eve  of  march- 
ing against  his  rebellious  countrymen.  What  none  had 
believed  when  foretold  by  him,  was  now,  at  last,  plainly 
close  at  hand.  Eoused  to  pitiless  fury  by  the  ingratitude 
and  faithlessness  of   Zedekiah,  Nebuchadnezzar  was  pre- 

passage,  "  Go  and  serve  every  one  his  idols,  since  ye  will  not  listen  to  Me  ;  only,  dis- 
honour not  My  holy  name  any  longer  by  your  gifts*  and  your  idols  I  "  So  Noyes, 
and  De  Wette.  The  Septuagint  has,  "  put  away  each  one  his  evil  ways,  and  here- 
after, if  ye  hearken  to  Me,  then  ye  shall  no  more  profane  My  holy  name  by  your 
gifts  and  j'our  doings  (ways)." 
>  Choicest=literally,  "  first  of  all  you  consecrate  to  me,"  "  of  all  your  holy  things." 
'  Ezek.  XX.  41-44.  •  "Lifted  up  My  hand." 

«  That  is,  in  b.c.  591  and  590. 


THE    CRISIS   AS   IT   APPEARED   TO    EZEKIEL.  33 

paring  to  burst  from  the  north-east,  where  Ezekiel  lived, 
like  a  destroying  storm,  on  Judah,  far  to  the  south.  Yet 
as  a  Jew  and  a  priest,  banished  from  his  country  and  its 
temple,  the  calamity,  though  so  long  anticipated,  well- 
nigh  overjiowered  the  prophet  as  it  approached.  The 
march  of  the  Chaldaean  army  seemed  before  him,  in  its 
successive  stages.  He  almost  counted  the  hours  till  it 
should  invest  Jerusalem.  Might  there  not  be  some  repent- 
ance even  yet — if  not  in  the  doomed  city,  at  least  among 
the  exiles  ?  Alas,  it  was  hopeless.  A  great  blow  in  his 
own  household  was  to  bring  the  sad  truth  home  to  him, 
and  teach  him  that  he  was  henceforth  to  be  silent  till  the 
inevitable  judgment  had  fallen.  His  wife,  whom  he  dearly 
loved,  died  suddenly  at  this  time,  and  her  death  was  used 
as  a  Divine  sign.  He  was  not  to  weep  for  the  dead  !  She 
was  gone  I  And,  so,  his  brethren  might  spare  their  la- 
ments for  their  country;  nothing  could  save  it ! 

In  the  first  of  these  new  utterances  the  prophet  pictures 
Judah,  with  its  towns  and  villages,  as  a  forest  in  the  south 
— for  it  lay  in  that  direction  from  the  Chebar.  Fire, 
kindled  by  God  Himself,  through  His  instrument  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, breaks  out  iif  it,  and  no  one  can  quench  it. 

"  XX,  45.  The  word  of  Jehovah  came  to  me;  *  46.  Son  of  man,  set 
thy  face  toward  the  south,  and  speak  southwards,  against  the  forests 
of  the  open  country,  47.  and  say  to  the  southern  forest:  Hear  the  word 
of  Jehovah  !  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah :  Behold,  I  kindle  a  fire  in 
thee,  and  it  will  devour  every  green  tree  in  thee,  and  every  dry.  Its 
flaming  fire  shall  not  be  quenched,  and  every  face,  from  south  to 
north,  will  be  lighted  up  by  it.  48.  And  all  flesh  shall  see  that  I, 
Jehovah,  have  kindled  it,  and  that  no  one  can  quench  it !  " 

Eagerly  clinging  to  their  wild  hope  for  their  country, 
the  exiled   community   affected   not   to   understand  these 

'  £zek.  XX.  45-48.     Tlie  ;21st  chapter  begins  here  in  Uic  Hebrew  Bible. 
VOL.  VI.--3 


34  THE   CRISIS    AS    IT    APPEARED   TO    EZEKIEL. 

metaphors  and  parables,  so  natural  to  Ezekiel,  but  they 
had  no  cause  of  such  a  complaint  in  a  discourse  delivered 
to  them  a  little  later. 

"XXI.  2.  Son  of  man'  (said  the  Inner  Voice  to  him),  set  thy  face 
towards  Jerusalem,  and  pour  out  thy  words  towards  the  holy  places, 
and  preach  against  the  land  of  Israel,  3.  and  say  to  it:  Thus  saith 
Jehovah:  Behold,  I  come  against  thee  and  unsheathe  My  sword,  and 
destroy  from  out  of  thee  both  the  righteous  and  the  wicked!  4. 
Therefore,  because  I  have  resolved  to  destroy  both  the  righteous  and 
the  wicked  (from  out  of  thee),  My  sword  will  go  forth  from  its  sheath 
against  all  flesh,  from  south  to  north  (of  the  land) ;  5.  that  all  flesh 
may  know  that  (it  is  I),  Jehovah,  (who)  have  drawn  My  sword  out  of 
its  scabbard,  (and  that)  I  will  not  sheathe  it  again.  6.  Sigh,  therefore, 
thou  son  of  man,  as  if  thy  loins  were  breaking;  sigh  bitterly  before 
their  eyes!  7.  And  when  they  say  to  thee,  '  Why  sighest  thou?'  say, 
'For  the  report  that  has  come  to  my 'ears!'  For  every  heart  shall 
melt,  and  all  hands  fall  down,  and  every  spirit  despair,  and  all  knees 
shake.*  Behold,  (what  has  been  foretold)  is  come,  and  is  being  carried 
out!  says  the  Lord  Jehovah." 

The  same  terrible  warning  was  soon  after  repeated  in  a 
different  form.  The  destruction  so  imminent  had  been 
pictured  as  a  great  conflagration  ;  it  was  now  presented  as 
a  grand  carnival  of  the  sword  !  ^^The  word  of  Jehovah^' 
again  came  to  the  prophet,  saying  : 

"9.  Son  of  man,  prophesy,  and  say:  Thus  says  Jehovah:  Say,  A 
Sword,  a  Sword  is  sharpened  and  whetted;  10.  sharpened  to  make  a 
sore  slaughter ;  whetted  that  it  may  flash  (like  the  lightning) !  Woe  to 
thee,  0  Staff,  the  sceptre  of  My  son  Judah — this  sword  despises  all 
such  weak  rods! '     11.  It  has  been  whetted  that  it  may  be  grasped  in 

'  Szek.  xxi.  1-11.  2  Melt  into  water. 

3  This  passage  is  so  corrupt  that  anj'  rendering  of  it  must  be  conjectural.  Gesenius 
translates  it,  "  It  is  sharpened  jigainst  the  prince  of  the  tribe  of  my  son  (Judah)  wha 
despises  all  wood"— that  is,  all  the  lighter  punisiiments  of  the  past.  Ewald,  "No 
weak  rod  of  my  son,  the  feeblest  of  wood."  Wellhausen,  '*  Not  weak  as  the  rod  ; 
not  the  most  contemptible  of  all  wood."  Arnheim,  "A  glittering  terror  ;  a  scourge 
that  makes  men  howl ;  sparing  no  tree."    Noyes,  "Or  shall  we  make  mirth  ?    The 


THE    CRISIS    AS    IT    APPEARED    TO    EZEKIEL.  35 

the  hand!  Yes!  it  is  sharpened  and  whetted,  to  give  it  to  the  hand  of 
the  slayer!  12.  Cry  and  howl,  O  son  of  man ! '  for  it  is  about  to  descend 
on  My  people;  on  all  the  princes  of  Israel!  They  are  reserved  for  the 
sword,  along  with  My  people!  Smite  therefore  on  thy  thigh  (in  sign 
of  great  sorrow! '^  13.  For  the  sword  has  been  proved,  and  what  ha? 
it  shewn  itself?  As  if  it  were  a  weak  rod?  No!  verily  not,'  saith  the 
Lord  God ! 

"14.  Thou,  therefore,  son  of  man,  prophesy,  and  smite  your  hands 
together  (in  despair) ;  the  sword  doubles,  aye,  trebles  its  fury ;  it  slays 
the  multitude;  it  slays  the  great;  it  searches  into  the  inmost  chamber.* 
15.  That  their  hearts  may  despair,  and  that  many  may  fall,  I  have 
set  the  flashing  sword  before  all  her  gates !  Ah !  how  it  glitters  like 
lightning;  how  it  is  whetted  for  the  slaughter!  16,  Up  (Sword)! 
smite  eagerly  on  the  right!  turn  swiftly  to  the  right!  turn  swiftly  to 
the  left!  Turn  whithersoever  thou  ai-t  appointed!  17.  I  (Jehovah) 
will  smite  My  hands  together  (against  them,  in  fierce  indignation),  and 
let  loose  My  wrath !     I,  Jehovah,  have  said  it. " 

Hitherto  Ezekiel  had  spoken  in  figures,  but  the  time 
had  come  to  speak  plainly.  His  countrymen  are  to  be 
told  that  Nebuchadnezzar  is,  already,  virtually,  on  the 
march  against  Judali  and  Ammon,  which  have  both  thrown 
off  their  allegiance.  It  was  a  question,  to  which  he  would 
first  turn ;  the  people  of  Jerusalem  hoping  that  he  would 
march  against  Ammon  before  attacking  their  own  city, 
and  thus  give  them  full  time  to  prepare,  and  to  summon 
to  their  aid  ^  the  Egyptian  army  on  which  they  depended. 

staff  of  my  pon  despiseth  every  rod."  Do  W^ette,  substantially  as  in  the  text  above. 
Eichhorn,  '-Ah  thou  (Zedekiah),  who  beares^t  the  kingly  staff,  the  sceptre  of  My 
people  ;  the  ?\vord  laugha  at  every  such  bit  of  wood  !  " 

1  Ezek.  xxi.  12-17. 

2  To  piiiite  on  the  thigh  is  often  used  as  a  token  of  great  trouble  of  mind.  See  Jer. 
xxxi.  19.  Iliad,  xii.  162  ;  xv.  397.  Plutarch  also  tells  us,  that  when  Fabius  saw  his 
men  flee,  he  gave  a  great  groan  and  smote  on  his  thigh. 

8  Ewald.  Eichhom's  rendering  of  this  passage,  which  is  so  corrupt  in  its  text  as 
to  defy  translators,  is,  "  The  proof  is  made  :  how  ?  should  not  the  sword  mock  at  the 
mere  rod  ? ' ' 

*  Eichhorn.  De  Wette  is  virtually  the  same.  Only  a  guess  at  the  meaning  can  be 
made  in  this,  as  in  the  other  instances  of  defective  text  I  have  noted. 

*  Ezek.  xvii. 


3G  THE    CmSLS    AS   IT    APPEARED    TO    EZEKIEL. 

But,  contrary  to  this,  the  prophet  announces  that  Jehovah 
will  send  the  Chaldajan  king  directly  against  Jerusalem. 
He  is,  therefore,  })ictured  as  standing  at  the  parting  of  the 
roads  to  Amnion  and  the  Holy  City,  uncertain  which  to 
enter,  and  consulting  his  oracle  for  direction.  But  Je- 
hovah gives  the  answer.  Even  this  warning,  however, 
may  fall  on  deaf  ears  ;  if  so,  the  heavier  will  the  fearful 
vengeance  of  the  Almighty  burst  on  the  perjured  Zedekiah 
and  on  his  princes. 

"XXI.  18.  The  word  of  Jehovah  came  to  me  again,  saying:*  19. 
Son  of  man !  Fix  ^  on  two  roads  by  which  the  sword  of  the  king  of 
Babylon  may  come;  let  both  run  out  from  one  country,  and  hew  thee 
a  finger-post  ^  (such  as  stands)  at  the  head  of  the  way  to  a  city.  20. 
Let  it  point,  in  one  direction,  so  that  the  sword  may  come  to  Rabbath 
of  the  Ammonites,*  and  in  the  other,  that  it  may  come  to  Judah  and 
the  strong- walled  Jerusalem !  21.  For  the  king  of  Babylon  stands  at 
the  parting  of  the  roads,  at  the  head  of  the  two  ways,  to  use  divination, 
(as  to  which  he  should  take).  He  shakes  (in  a  quiver)  the  two  arrows,  ^ 
(marked  Ammon  and  Jerusalem,  to  see  which  will  be  drawn  out  first, 
by  one  blindfolded) ;  ^  he  enquires  of  the  teraphim ;  he  looks  at  the 
liver  (of  the  sacrifices).  ^ 

"22.  (And,  now,)  in  his  right  hand  (the  fortunate  one)  he  holds  the 
arrow  marked  '  Jerusalem '  (which  has  been  drawn  by  him  from  the 
quiver).  He  orders  forward  the  battering  rams,  to  open  a  breach  (by 
breaking  down  the  wall) ;  ®  he  commands  that  the  loud  battle-cry  be 
given;  that  the  battering  rams  be  set  up  at  the  gates;  that  an  (enclos- 
ing) mound  be  raised ;  that  a  tower  be  built,  (to  sweep  the  top  of  the 
wall).  23.  To  the  people  (in  Jerusalem)  all  this  seems  a  false  proph- 
ecy ;  they  think  they  will  have  weeks  upon  weeks  of  respite ;  ®  but  Jeho- 

1  Ezek.  xxi.  18-23.  »  Literally,  "  make  thee." 

s  Literally,  "cut  a  hand."  *  See  vol.  iii.  p.  382. 

5  This  was  a  common  form  of  divination  among  the  heathen  Arabs.  Perceval, 
Essai  S2ir  ridstoii-e  des  Arabes,  1847,  vol.  ii.  p.  310.  On  divination  by  the  liver,  see 
Lenormant,  La  Divination,  n.  58.  *  Smend. 

7  Cic,  De  Div.,  i.  16  ;  ii.  13.    Diod.,  ii.  49.  «  Schrader.    De  Wette. 

9  Ewald.  Smend.  The  Hebrew  for  oath,  Sheba,  means  also  a  week,  and  the  form 
in  the  text  is  capable  of  both  renderings.  Some  render  this  clause,  "  who  have  sworn 
oaths  to  them  "  (to  the  Chaldaeans)  ;  others,  "  who  have  received  solemn  oaths  (from 
God).'* 


THE   CRISIS    AS   IT    APPEARED   TO    EZEKIEL.  37 

vnli    will    call    their    iniquity   to    remembrance,    that    they   may  "be 
taken ! 

"24.  Therefore, •  thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Because  ye  bring 
your  iniquity  to  remembrance,  so  that  your  transgressions  come  to  the 
light,  and  your  sins,  in  all  your  conduct,  appear;  because  ye  bring 
them  to  remembrance,  you  will  be  taken  by  Ilis  hand !  25.  And  thou, 
wicked,  falling '  i)rince  of  Israel  (Zedekiah),  whose  day  is  come — the 
day  of  thy  uttermost  punishment!  20.  (As  to  thee^)  thus  saith  the 
Lord  Jehovah,  "Take  olT  his  royal  turban!  Off  with  his  crown!' 
This  (humbled  and  ruined)  kingdom  is  not  the  kingdom  (to  come  here- 
after)—that  of  the  promised  future!  The  low  shall  be  exalted  and  the 
high  abased!  27.  I  will  bring  (the  city  to)  ruins,  to  ruins,  to  ruins; 
what  has  been  shall  be  no  more,  till  He  come  whose  right  it  is;  to  Ilim 
will  T  give  it!  " 

In  the  troubled  time  of  Jehoiakim's  reign  the  Ammon- 
ites, in  common  with  the  Moabites  and  Edomites,  had 
shewn  their  hereditary  hatred  of  Israel,  by  joining  flying 
columns  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  troops  in  harassing  and  plun- 
dering Judah.^  Since  tlieu,  they,  like  others,  had  felt  the 
heavy  pressure  of  the  Chald?ean  yoke,  and,  in  common  with 
the  different  kingdoms  of  Palestine,  had  plotted  a  rebellion. 
Envoys  from  their  king,  as  we  have  seen,  had  met  ambas- 
sadors from  Edom,  Moab,  Tyre,  and  Sidon,  at  Jerusalem, 
to  form  a  league  against  Babylon  ;  Egypt  having  promised 
to  aid  them.  Zedekiah  had,  doubtless,  relied  on  this  sup- 
port, especially  as  Amnion  had  compromised  itself  deeply 
by  its  truculent  bearing  towards  the  Great  King.  But 
Ezekiel  knew  how  worthless  this  confidence  would  prove. 
Hastening  to  submit,  on  the  first  approach  of  the  invader, 
Ammon  and  the  otlier  Palestine  states  of  the  south  and 
east,  would  throw  themselves  into  the  contest  as  the  allies 
of  the  Chald^eans  and  the  exulting  foes  of  Judah.  For 
this  tliey,  too,  would  receive  heavy  })uuishment  at  the  hand 

*  Bzek.  xxi.  24-27.  '  =  doomed  to  be  slain.  '  2  Kings  xxiv.  2. 


38  THE   CRISIS   AS   IT   APPEARED   TO   EZEKIEL. 

of  God.  Lying  prophets  in  Amnion  itself  had  predicted  its 
safety  when  the  storm  should  burst,  and  in  anticipation  of 
this  it  had  already  shewn  its  insincerity.  A  short  time 
before,  the  fawning  ally  of  Judah,  it  now  affected  to  treat 
her  with  scorn.  Under  these  circumstances,  Ezekiel  was 
commissioned  to  denounce  its  king  and  people. 

"  XXI.  28.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah  concerning  the  Ammon- 
ites,' and  concerning  the  scorn  (they  pour  on  Judah)  :  Say  thou,  the 
sword,  the  sword,  is  drawn  for  the  slaughter:  it  is  whetted  to  the 
uttermost,  to  flash  destruction!  29.  Thou  trustcst  to  deceitful  visions 
(of  thy  prophets),  and  lettest  lies  be  declared  to  thee,  that  the  sword 
will  descend  only  on  the  neck  of  Israel,  (as  doomed  to  fall)  for 
its  wickedness — (Israel,)  whose  day  (thou  sayest)  approaches,  when  its 
sin  shall  receive  final  punishment!  30.  Put  thy  sword  back  into  its 
sheath!  In  your  own  land,  whence  you  si)rang,  the  land  of  your 
birth,  I  will  judge  you.  31.  And  I  will  pour  out  My  wrath  on  you  ; 
I  will  blow  on  you  the  fire  of  My  indiguation,^  and  give  you  into  the 
hand  of  wild  men,  skilled  in  destroying.  32.  You  shall  become  food 
for  fire  :  your  blood  shall  be  poured  out  on  the  earth.  You  will  be 
no  more  remembered,  for  I,  Jehovah,  have  said  it  !  " 

»  Ezek.  xxi.  28-32. 

2  The  wratU  of  God  is  conceived  as  breathing  forth  flames  agai  st  His  eneiaies. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE   EVE   OF   THE    SIEGE   OF   JERUSALEM. 

The  guilt  which  was  about  to  bring  down  the  ruin  of 
the  Jewish  State  had  been,  as  we  have  seen,  the  constant 
theme  of  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  for  many  years ;  but  the 
hope  of  future  reformation  so  entirely  depended  on  its 
being  kept  before  the  public  mind,  with  all  its  terrible 
results,  that  no  repetition  seemed  too  frequent.  It  was,  in 
fact,  by  this  unwearied  presentation  of  the  truth,  to  the 
minds  of  their  contemporaries,  however  much  they  dis- 
liked it,  that  these  great  preachers  ultimately  awakened 
the  national  conscience,  and  led  to  that  amazing  reaction 
from  the  idolatry  of  the  past,  of  which  Judaism,  in  its 
later  development,  became  the  embodiment. 

Never  in  the  history  of  nations,  so  far  as  appears,  has  a 
sacred  order  anywhere  risen,  more  earnest,  self-sacrificing, 
noble  in  their  purity  of  life,  lofty  in  their  realization  of  the 
true  and  eternal,  or  bravely  faithful  in  their  battle  with 
sin,  than  the  Hebrew  prophets.  They  really  believed  what 
they  said,  and  spoke  accordingly.  No  fear  of  the  great, 
or  of  the  multitude,  could  silence  them.  Appointed  to 
proclaim  the  whole  truth,  without  circumlocution  or  miti- 
gation, they  did  so,  however  invidious,  '^  vulgar, '^  ''^cen- 
sorious,'' unpopular,  or  perilous  the  duty.  Self-seeking, 
worldly-minded  members  of  the  order  abounded,  as  they 
do  in   all   ages   among  the   public   ministers  of   religion  ; 


40  THE   EVE   OF   THE   SIEGE   OF   JERUSALEM. 

men  who  toned  down  the  Word  of  God  to  suit  their 
audiences;  astutely  careful  to  let  abuses  lie  undisturbed, 
to  flatter  the  great,  to  avoid  whatever  was  disagreeable  to 
their  patrons,  and,  like  keen  and  crafty  men  of  the  world, 
to  make  sure  of  as  much  of  this  life  as  they  could,  lest 
they  should  by  any  chance  come  short  in  the  other.  The 
fidelity  of  the  true  prophets  was  ill  calculated  to  promote 
their  worldly  interests,  but  their  names  live  for  evermore; 
their  self-sacrifice  was  the  regeneration  of  their  race,  and 
they  remain  for  all  ages  the  ideal  of  true  preachers.  Does 
our  century  realize  and  repeat  the  lesson  of  tlieir  example? 
In  the  enumeration  of  the  sins  of  his  contemporaries, 
Ezekiel  had  laid  especial  stress  on  their  idolatry  ;  but  the 
general  corruption  of  the  times  had  not  escaped  his  lash. 
One  sin,  however,  among  many,  had  not  been  denounced 
as  yet  with  the  same  fulness  as  others.  The  treatment 
of  their  banished  brethren,  by  those  who  remained  in 
Palestine,  had  been  shameful.  Victims  of  the  same  mean 
and  sordid  lust  for  gain  that  still  marks  the  Jew,  they  had 
been  piteously  cheated  and  over-reached,  in  the  forced 
sales  of  their  goods  and  property,  when  hurried  oif.  This 
was  now  to  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  extortioners.  The 
new  lords  of  the  city,  moreover,  had  proved  as  vile  as  their 
predecessors  ;  anarchy  reigned  ;  the  streets  were  dangerous 
from  the  number  of  murders,  and  society  was  dissolving 
into  its  elements.  The  men  who  had  been  banished  for 
their  sins  had,  in  fact,  been  better  than  those  left  behind. 
A  stern  indictment  of  such  a  state  of  things  was  demanded. 

*'  XXII.  1.  The  word  of  Jehovah — he  tells  us — came  to  him,  saying: 
2.  Son  of  man,'  if  you  judge  the  bloody  city  (Jerusalem),  do  it  so  as  to 
shew  her  all  her  abominations  !    3.  Say  to  her,  Thus  says  the  Lord 

i  Ezek.  xxii.  1-3. 


THE    EVE   OF   THE   SIEGE   OF   JERUSALEM.  41 

Jehovah :  0  city,  in  whose  midst  blood  is  poured  out,  drawing  on  thee 
the  time  of  thy  doom ;  (0  city,)  defiled  by  the  loathsome  gods  she  makes 
for  herself:  4.  Thou  art  guilty  through  the  blood  thou  hast  shed,^ 
and  art  defiled  by  the  loathsome  gods  thou  hast  made  (for  thyself); 
thou  hast  brought  near  the  days  (of  thy  punishment),  and  hastened  the 
years  (of  thy  retribution)!  Because  of  thy  sins  I  will  make  thee  the 
contempt  of  the  heathen ;  the  mockery  of  all  lands  !  5.  The  near  and 
the  far  off  will  alike  deride  thee,  and  call  thee  *  thou  city  of  a  stained 
name,  and  full  of  commotion  ! ' 

"6.  Behold,  the  princes  of  Israel  (thy  aristocracy)  have  sought, 
every  one,  to  shed  blood  in  thee  to  his  utmost.  7.  Men  have  despised 
father  and  mother  in  thee ;  the  stranger  has  been  treated  unjustly  in 
thy  midst ;  the  fatherless  and  the  widow  have  been  oppressed  in  thee. 
8.  Thou  hast  despised  My  holy  things.  Thou  hast  dishonoured  My 
Sabbaths;  9.  men  seeking  to  murder  by  spreading  lies,  are  in  thee. 
Thy  people  eat  (idol  sacrifices  at  the  high  places)  on  the  hills;  lewdness 
is  committed  in  thee;  10.  men  expose  their  fathers'  shame,^  and  go 
near  her  who  is  legally  unclean.'  11.  One  commits  abomination  with 
his  neighbours  wife  ;  another  basely  defiles  his  daughter-in-law: 
another  humbles  his  sister,  his  father's  daughter !  12.  Men  shed 
blood  in  thee  for  hire;  thou  takest  usury  and  increase;  thou  hast 
greedily  over-reached  thy  fellow-citizens  by  extortion,  and  hast  for- 
gotten Me,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah  ! 

"  13.  Behold,  for  this,  I  clap  my  hands  together  (in  indignation  at 
thee),  when  I  think  of  the  dishonest  gains  thou  hast  made,  and  of  the 
blood  that  has  flowed  in  thy  midst.  14.  Will  thy  heart  bear  up,  or 
thy  hands  keep  their  strength,  in  the  days  when  I  deal  with  thee  !  I, 
Jehovah,  speak,  and  will  act  !  15.  I  will  scatter  thee  among  the 
lieathen,  and  disperse  thee  through  the  lands,  and  destroy  thy  unclean- 
ness  out  of  thee,  16.  and  punish  thee  so  that  I  shall  seem  dishonoured 
in  the  sight  of  the  heathen  (in  bringing  such  suffering  on  thee),*  and 
(thus)  thou  shalt  know  that  I  am  Jehovah  ! " 

Such  was  the  wicked  city ;  but  its  day  of  reckoning 
was  at  hand.  Its  fine  gold  had  become  dim,  its  silver, 
dross ;  what  pure  ore  there  was  must  be  separated  from 

»  Ezek.  X3di.  4-16.  »  Lev.  xviii.  6-17  ;  xx.  11.    1  Cor.  v.  1. 

3  Lev.  xii.  2  ;  xviii.  10. 

*  This  clause  may  be  read,  "  thou  shalt  be  polluted  in  thyself,"  or,  "  by  thine  owu 
Btory."    But  this  hardly  suits  thecoutext  and  is  not  so  striking. 


42  THE    EVE    OF   THE.  SIEGE    OF    JERUSALEM. 

the  mass  of  worthless  alloy,  and  this,  the  miseries  of  the 
siege,  like  the  flames  of  a  refiner^s  furnace,  would  effect  ! 

"XXII.  18.  Son  of  man,'  said  the  secret  Voice,  the  house  of  Israel 
has  become  dross  to  Me.''  They  are  all  of  them  brass,  and  tin,  and 
iron,  and  lead,  in  the  smelting  furnace;  they  are  the  dross  (left  behind, 
in  the  smelting)  of  silver.  19.  Therefore,  thus  saith  the  Lord  Jeho- 
vah :  Because  ye  have  all  become  dross,  behold  I  will  throw  you  into 
the  midst  of  Jerusalem  (as  into  a  furnace,  to  purify  you  by  the  flames 
of  the  siege).'  20.  As  they  cast  silver,  and  brass,  and  iron,  and  lead, 
and  tin,  into  the  furnace,  to  blow  fire  on  it  and  melt  it ;  so  will  I  cast 
you  (into  the  furnace  of  war),  and  leave  you  there,  and  melt  you,  in 
My  anger  and  fury.  21.  Yes  !  I  will  gather  you  together  (into 
Jerusalem),  and  blow  on  you  the  flames  of  My  wrath,  till  ye  be 
melted  down  in  (the  city).  22.  As  they  melt  silver  in  the  furnace,  so 
shall  ye  be  molted  down  in  the  midst  (of  Jerusalem),  and  ye  shall  know 
that  I,  Jehovah,  have  poured  out  My  fury  upon  you  ! " 

All  ranks  in  Judah  were  hopelessly  corrupt  ;  prophets, 
priests,  nobles,  and  people.  Even  the  king  did  nothing 
to  save  the  state.  It  only  remained  to  leave  it  to  destruc- 
tion. 

"24.  Son  of  man,  say  to  Judali:  Thou  art  barren  and  unfruitful, 
like  a  land  which  has  no  rain  or  moisture,  in  the  day  of  wrath  !  25. 
Her  princes  *  in  her  midst  are  like  *  a  roaring  lion  greedy  for  prey ; 
they  devour  men's  lives;  seize  property  and  goods;  and  multiply 
the  widows  in  her  midst  !  26.  Her  priests  violate  My  law  and  profane 
My  holy  things ;  they  make  no  difference  between  the  holy  and  com- 
mon; they  teach  no  distinction  between  clean  and  unclean,  and  hide 
their  eyes  from  My  Sabbaths,  so  that  I  am  profaned  among  them !  27. 
Her  chief  men  are  like  greedy  wolves,  eager  to  shed  blood,  to  destroy 
men's  lives,  to  make  sinful  gain  !  28.  Her  prophets  coat  over 
(their  false  hopes  and  bad  lives)  with  the  white  plaster  ®  of  pretended 

1  Ezek.  xxii.  18-28.  s  Isa.  i.  23. 

5*  They  would  flee  to  Jerusalem  at  the  approach  of  the  Chaldseans. 

4  Septuagint.     Keil.    See  ver.  28. 

*  The  change  of  ouc  letter  gives  this  sense. 

*  Literally,  "  daub  them  with  white  plaster." 


THE   EVE   OF   THE   S-IEGE   OF   JERUSALEM.  43 

visions,  and  lying  revelations,  saying,  'Thus  says  Joliovah,'  though 
He  has  not  spoken!  29.  The  people  of  the  land  practise  violence,* 
and  commit  robbery,  oppress  the  poor  and  helpless,  and  do  illegal 
wrong  to  the  stranger  !  30.  I  sought,  therefore,  for  one  among 
them  all  that  would  fill  in  the  gaps  in  the  wall  (and  keep  out  My 
wrath),  and  that  would  stand  in  the  breach  before  Me  (by  a  holy 
life),  to  save  the  land,  and  turn  Me  back  from  destroying  it ;  but  I 
found  none  !  31.  I  will,  therefore,  pour  out  My  indignation  upon 
them ;  I  will  consume  them  in  the  flames  of  My  wrath ;  I  will  pour 
their  doings  on  their  own  head,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah  !  " 

Such  a  moral  reformation  as  these  utterances  demanded 
was  hopeless,  so  long  as  idolatry — the  source  of  all  debase- 
ment— was  cherished  in  Jndah.  To  restore  the  sincere 
worship  of  Jehovah  was  imperative,  if  a  purer  and  better 
state  of  things  were  to  be  attained.  Now,  therefore,  once 
more,  at  the  eleventh  hour,  Ezekiel  returned  to  the  sub- 
ject in  a  vivid  allegory,  in  which  Samaria  and  Jerusalem, 
the  representatives  of  Israel  and  Judah,  are  delineated 
under  the  figure  of  two  sisters,  whose  career  had  been 
shameful.  The  name  of  Aholah,  the  elder,  shewed  the 
difference  between  the  Ten  Tribes  and  Judah,  for  it  meant, 
^'  She  hatli  her  own  tent,"  or  temple,  in  allusion  to  the 
Nortliei'ii  Kingdom  having  framed  a  new  religion,  and 
repudiated,  from  the  first,  the  jmre  faith  of  Jehovah. 
The  name  of  the  younger,  Aholibah,  ^^My  tent,  or  temple, 
is  in  her,"  marked  the  special  glory  of  Jerusalem.  l)y  a 
usage  familiar  in  the  prophets,  the  idolatry  of  the  two, 
and  alliances  sought  by  them  with  foreign  nations,  are 
denounced  as  adultery  ;  Jehovah  being  regarded  as  their 
husband.  The  division  into  two  kingdoms  is  represented 
as  practically  dating  from  the  Egyptian  bondage,  though 
historically  so  much  later.     In  a  former  address  Ezekiel 

«  Ezek.  xxii.  29-31. 


44  THE   EVE   OF   THE   SIEGE   OF   JERUSALEM. 

had  reminded  his  peo^ole  of  the  idohitiy  of  their  fore= 
fathers  in  the  distant  past  ;  ^  he  now  recalls  their  recent 
history,  in  its  relation  to  the  heathenism  of  Assyria,  Baby- 
lon, and  Egypt,  and  also  to  their  political  coqnetting  with 
these  nations.  To  our  Western  ideas  his  sensuous  imagery 
seems  strange,  but  the  Children  of  the  Sun  have,  in  all 
ages,  had  modes  of  speech  very  different  from  those  of  the 
people  of  colder  lands. 

"XXIII.  1.  The  word  of  Jehovah  '  went  forth  to  me  again,  saying: 

2.  Son  of  man,  there  were  two  women,  the  daughter  of  one  mother,^ 

3.  and  they  committed  sin  in  Egypt;  behaving  shamefully  even  in 
their  youth.  4.  Their  names  were  Aholah,  the  elder,  and  Aholibah, 
her  sister,  and  I  became  their  husband,  and  they  bore  sons  and  daugh- 
ters: Aholah  became  Samaria,  and  Aholibah,  Jerusalem.* 

"5.  But  Aholah — (that  is,  Samaria) — played  the  harlot,  although 
she  was  Mine,  and  she  sighed  ^  after  her  lovers ;  (above  all,  after)  the 
warrior  Assyrians,"  6.  clothed  in  blue  (or  violet)  purple — pashas^  and 
rulers,®  all  of  them  handsome  men,  in  their  early  prime,  cavaliers  rid- 
ing on  horses.  7.  And  she  gave  herself  up  to  sin  with  them — with 
the  chosen  sons  of  Assyria  and  with  all  on  whom  she  doted ;  and  de- 
filed herself  with  all  their  loathsome  gods.  8.  Yet  she  did  not  give 
i:p  her  idolatries  brought  from  Egypt,"  for  in  her  youth  she  had 
yielded  to  them.  9.  For  this  reason  I  delivered  her  into  the  hand 
of  those  she  loved,  into  the  hand  of  the  Assyrians,  upon  whom  she 
doted,  10.  and  they  dealt  shamefully  with  her,  took  her  sons  and 
her  daughters  (into  captivity),  and  slew  her,  (herself),  with  the  sword, 
and  thus  she  became  a  warning  '°  to  women,  for  they  had  carried  out 
My  judgment  upon  her." 

»  Ezek,  xvi.  «  Ezek.  xxiii.  1-10. 

s  Sarah. 

4  They  were  already  fallen  when  Jehovah  took  them  as  His. 

6  Loved  inordinately,  looked  amorously  towards,  made  eyes  to. 

«  The  Hebrew  word  for  "  neighbours  "  is  almost  identical  with  that  for  "  war," 
and  this  in  the  plural  seems  to  give  the  best  sense. 

'  Prefects  of  divisions  of  Satrapies. 

■8  Sagansi=  Assyrian,  Sakan.    It  means  one  "appointed,"  "  commissioned  "  from 
the  king.    Schrader,  Keilinschriften,  p.  270. 

9  Exod.  xxiii.  13.    Josh,  xxiii.  7.    Josh.  xxiv.  14.    Ezek.  viii.  7-10  ;  xvl.  26  ;  xx.  4 

>»  Literally,  "  a  name." 


THE    EVE    OF   THE    SIEGE    OF   JERUSALEM.  4^ 

Instead,  however,  of  being  warned  by  the  example  of 
the  Northern  Kingdom,  Judah  sinned  still  more  than  she. 
Not  content  with  seeking  an  alliance  with  Assyria  and 
introducing  its  idolatry,  she  acted  similarly  with  the  Baby- 
lonians also,  and  even,  in  the  end,  went  after  Egypt  with 
more  greediness  than  ever.  Thus,  the  measure  of  her  sins 
was  at  last  full. 

"11.  But  though  her  sister  Aholibah^ — (Jerusalem)— saw  this,  she 
became  even  viler  in  her  wickedness,  and  worse  in  idolatries,  than 
Aholah  had  been.  12.  For  she,  too,  doted  upon  the  warrior  Assyrians, 
pashas  and  rulers,  gorgeously  '^  arrayed  cavaliers  riding  on  horses,  all 
of  them  handsome  men,  in  their  early  prime.  13.  Then  I  saw  that 
she,  also,  was  defiled  ;  that  both  sisters  took  one  way  ;  and  that 
Aholibah — 14.  Jerusalem — even  increased  her  sins.  For  when  she 
saw  pictures  of  men  on  her  house  walls,  ^  likenesses  of  Chaldteans, 
painted  with  vermilion,  15.  with  splendid  girdles  round  their  waists, 
and  many-coloured  turbans  on  their  heads,  the  ends  hanging  down 
behind — all  like  lords  to  look  at— the  pictures  of  the  sons  of  Babylon, 
whose  birthplace  is  Chakhea — 16.  when  she  saw  these  with  her  eyes, 
she  forthwith  fell  in  love  with  them,  and  sent  messengers  to  them,  to 
Chaldgea.*  17.  And  the  sons  of  Babylon  came  to  her,  and' they  defiled 
her  with  their  idolatry,  and  she  was  polluted  by  them.  But  ere  long 
she  (was  not  contented  even  with  them,  and  her  mind)  Avas  alienated 
from  them.  18.  She  became  shameless  (in  fact),  and  set  on  all  kinds 
of  idolatry.  Then  My  mind,  also,  was  alienated  from  her,  as  it  had 
been  from  her  sister,  Samaria. 

1  Ezek.  xxiii.  11-18. 

a  The  "gorgeous  array"  of  the  princes  and  high  dignitaries  of  the  Euphrates 
may  be  judged  from  the  robes  of  the  kings  and  nobles  in  the  illustrations  in  these 
volumes.  We  have,  also,  a  description  of  a  royal  robe,  woven  or  embroidered  by 
the  wonderful  skill  of  the  ladies  of  the  royal  harem,  or  of  the  royal  workmen.  It  is 
in  an  inscription,  on  a  black  basalt  tablet  of  King  Marduk-nadin-akhi,  and  tells 
how  his  royal  robe  was  bordered  with  gold  fringe,  and  covered  with  exquisite  de- 
signs, and  precious  stones,  set  in  the  web  of  the  tissue  ;  how  the  tiara  was  adorned 
with  feathers  and  wide-open  daisies,  and  how  the  broad  lozenge-shaped  stitches  of 
hio  sandals  were  countless. 

3  An  allusion  to  the  introduction  of  paintings  on  the  walls  of  the  mansions  of 
Jerusalem,  in  imitation  of  the  custom  in  Babylon.  Eastern  women,  shut  up  in  their 
harems,  could  only  thus  be  acquainted  with  strangers,  at  first. 

*  She  sent  messengers  to  learn  their  religion  and  bi'iug  it  back  with  them,  and  also 
sought  au  alliance  with  them. 


46  THE    EVE    OF   THE    SIEGE    OF    JERUSALEM. 

*'  19.  Yet  she  still  multiplied  her  sins/  bethinking  herself  of  the  days 
of  her  youth,  when  she  had  played  the  harlot  against  Me  in  Egypt. 
20.  And  she  made  eyes  to  their  (Egyptian)  paramours,  who  are  rank 
as  he  asses,  lustful  as  stallions.  31.  Yes!  thou  soughtest  again  the 
lewdness  of  thy  youth,  when,  of  old,  thou  wentest  after  the  impurity 
of  Egypt. 

"22.  Therefore,  Jerusalem,  thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Behold,  I 
will  stir  up  thy  lovers  against  thee,  from  whom  thy  mind  is  (now) 
alienated,  and  I  will  bring  them  against  thee  on  every  side,  23.  the 
Babylonians  and  all  the  Chalda3ans;  its  king,  its  nobles  and  princes,* 
and  all  the  Assyrians  with  them ;  all  handsome  young  men,  pashas  and 
rulers,  lords,  and  men  of  name,^  all  of  them  riding  on  horses.  24. 
They  shall  come  against  thee — (not  now,  as  lovers,  but)  with  (the  tumult 
of)  war  chariots  and  clashing  wheels,*  and  with  an  army  of  differ- 
ent nations,  who  will  press  against  thee  on  every  side  (in  full  armour), 
with  the  large  shield  (covering  the  whole  body),  the  small  target  (on  the 
arm),  and  the  helmet.  And  I  will  commit  matters  to  them,  and  they 
will  judge  thee  by  their  (pitiless)  laws  (of  war).  25.  And  I  will  let  my 
jealousy  come  on  thee,  and  they  will  deal  cruelly  with  thee ;  for  tliey  will 
cut  off  thy  nose  and  thine  ears;  *  the  survivors  (of  thy  manhood)  will 
fall  by  their  sword ;  they  will  carry  off  your  young  sons  and  your  daugh- 
ters (to  sell  as  slaves),  and  what  men  are  left  of  thee  will  perish  in  the 
conflagration  (of  the  city).  2G.  They  will  also  strip  off  thy  clothes,  and 
plunder  thee  of  thy  fine  jewels.  27.  Thus  (if  no  other  way),  I  will  root 
out  (thy  love  of  foreign  alliances)  from  thee,  and  thy  heathenism, 
brought  from  the  land  of  Egypt,  so  that  thou  shalt  not  lift  up 
thine  eyes  to  their  (enticements,  or)  idols,  or  think  on  Egypt  any 
more. 

**28.  For  thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Behold  I  will  give  thee  into 
the  hand  of  those  whom  thou  (once  lovedst,  but  now)  hatest :  into  the 
hand  of  them  from  whom  thy  mind  is  (now)  alienated.  29.  And  they 
will  treat  thee  with  hatred — and  take  away  all  thy  substance,  and  leave 
thee  naked  and  bare,  and  the  shame  of  thy  conduct  shall  be  exposed ; 
thy  unfaithfulness  and  thy  heathenism.      30.  I  will  do  this  to  thee, 

»  Ezek.  xxiii.  19-30. 

2  Muhlau  und  Volck.  Gesenius.  Keil.  Hengstenberg.  Pekod  ="  infliction  of 
punishment."  An  allegorical  name  for  Babel  in  Jer.  1.  21.  Shoa  =  noble,  Koa  = 
prince.    Literally,  a  "  stallion  or  breeding  camel,"  which  must  be  of  noble  blood. 

3  Councillors,  Keil. 

*  Smend.    Miihlau  und  Volck  render  it,  "  with  weapons  of  attack." 
6  This  has  always  been  and  still  is  the  practice  in  war,  in   the  East.     See  Winer, 
art.  "Leibesstrafen."  In  Egypt,  the  nose  of  adulterers  was  cut  off.    Diod.  Sic,  i.  78, 


THE    EVE    OF   TKE    SIEGE    OF   JERUSALE:M.  4? 

because  thou  hast  sought  after  the  heathen,  and  because  tliou  hast 
defiled  thyself  with  their  loathsome  gods.  31.  Thou  hast  gone  in  the 
steps  of  thy  sister  (Samaria);  '•  therefore  I  will  give  thee  her  cup  into 
thy  hand!" 

The  mention  of  the  cup  of  God^s  wrath  leads  the  prophet 
to  dwell  on  the  figure. 

"32.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Thou  shalt  drink  of  thy  sister's 
cup,  (the  cup  of  misery,)  deep  and  wide,  which  liolds  much,  and  will 
make  thee  be  laughed  to  scorn  and  had  in  derision.  33.  For  thou 
shalt  be  filled  with  (the)  drunkenness  (of  grief)  and  sorrow  ;  with  the 
cu])  of  desolation  and  ruin;  with  the  cup  thy  sister  Samaria  has  drunk. 
34.  Thou  wilt  drink  it  up  and  drain  it  to  the  dregs ;  craunching  up  its 
very  pieces  (as  a  wild  beast  does  the  bones  of  its  prey),  and  tearing  thy 
bosom ;  for  I  have  spoken  it,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah.  35.  Therefore, 
thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Because  thou  hast  forgotten  Me,  and 
cast  Me  behind  thy  back;  bear  thou  the  punishment  of  thy  unfaithful- 
ness and  idolatry ! " 

The  guilt  and  deserved  fate  of  both  kingdoms  are  now 
recapitulated  with  still  greater  minuteness.  They  have 
served  idols ;  given  their  children  to  Moloch  ;  profaned 
even  the  temple  by  heathenism,  and  gone  to  distant 
lands  for  new  gods  and  alliances  hateful  to  Jehovah.  Their 
sin  must  be  sorely  punished  ! 

"36.  Jehovah  said,  further,  to  me:  Son  of  man,  be  thou  accuser  of 
Aholah '  and  Aholibah,  and  shew  them  their  abominations — 37.  that 
they  have  committed  adultery;  that  blood  is  on  their  hands;  for  they 
have  committed  adultery  with  their  loathsome  gods,  and  have 
even  given  their  children,  whom  they  bore  to  Me,  to  pass  through  the 
fire  to  them,  burning  them!  38.  Still  more,  they  have  done  this: 
they  have  defiled  My  sanctuary,  on  that  day  (when  they  offered  up 
their  children),  and  have  profaned  My  Sabbaths.  39.  For  when  they 
had  slain  their  children,  as  offerings  to  their  loathsome  gods,  on  the 
same  day  they  entered  My  temple  (polluted  as  they  were),  and  (thus) 
profaned  it;  lo,  they  practised  idolatry  even  in  the  midst  of  My  house! 

»  Ezek.  xxiii.  31-39. 

a  Ezekiel  here  speaks  against  Samaria,  nearly  150  years  after  its  destruction. 


48  THE    EVE    OF   THE    SIEGE    OF   JEEUSALEM. 

"''  40.  Yes,  thou  sentest  for  men  '  to  come  from  distant  lands,  de- 
spatching a  messenger  to  them,  and,  lo,  when  they  came,  thou 
bathedst  thyself  for  them,  paintedst  thine  eyes,''  and  arrayed  thyself 
with  thy  jewels.  41.  And  thou  satest  thyself  upon  a  grand  couch, 
and  setst  out  a  table  before  them,^  and  didst  put  on  it  My  incense  and 
My  oil.'*  42.  And  they  (the  sisters)  made  merry  with  them,  and  played 
on  instruments  and  sang,  to  them  and  to  the  mixed  crowd  of  deep  drink- 
ers, from  the  wilderness,^  and  they  put  bracelets  on  the  arms  of  the  two 
sisters,  and  magnificent  coronets  on  their  heads.  43.  Then  said  I  to 
her  that  was  worn  out  with  adulteries — (Aholah,  the  eldest  sister,  long 
given  to  idolatry) — '  Will  these  people  now  commit  adultery  with  your 
younger  sister  also,  and  she  with  them  ? '  °  44.  But  they  came  to  her 
also,  as  to  a  harlot  ;  thus  they  came  to  both  Aliolah  and  Aholibah,  the 
unchaste  women  ! 

"45.  But  righteous  men  shall  judge  them,  as  adulteresses  and 
women  that  shed  blood  are  judged,^  because  they  are  adulteresses,  and 
blood  is  on  their  hands.  4G.  For  thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah :  I  will 
bring  a  multitude  against  tliem,  and  give  them  up  to  ill-treatment 
and  plunder.  47.  And  its  host  will  stone  them  with  stones,  and  hew 
them  in  pieces  with  swords;  they  will  kill  their  sons  and  daughters, 
and  burn  their  houses  with  fire.  48.  Thus  will  I  make  lewdness  cease 
out  of  the  land,  that  all  nations  *  may  learn  not  to  do  after  their  sin. 
49.  And  they  shall  pay  back  on  you  your  iniquity,  and  ye  shall  bear 
the  sins  of  your  loathsome  gods,  and  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah 
Adonai." 

The  long-suffering  patience  of  God  was  now,  at  length, 
exhausted,  and  no  more  appeals  or  warnings  from  Him 
disturbed    the    doomed    capital.      But   the   voice   of    the 

^  Ezek.  a:siii.  40-49. 

5  In  the  East  the  eyelids  are  painted  on  the  inner  edges  with  kohl,  a  dark  powder 
(Hebrew  pflk),  a  mixture  of  lead  and  zinc.  This  made  the  white  of  the  eyes  more 
striking,  and  seemed  to  increase  their  size. 

3  The  idol  altar.  *  Which  should  have  been  offered  to  Me. 

5  Masoretic  note— Sobim  =  drinking  men,  or  drunkards.  Deut.  xxi.  20.  The  men 
represent  idols,  which  Jerusalem  and  Samaria  adopted.  Some  of  these,  of  wilder- 
ness tribes,  may  be  called  drunkards,  from  wine  being  offered  them.  I  give  the 
Septuagint  reading. 

«  The  text  is  apparently  corrupt.    But  this  seems  the  meaning. 

'  All  the  honourable  men  of  a  village  were  summoned  to  try  an  adulteress,  and 
condemn  her  to  death  by  stoning  if  guilty. 

^  Literally,  "  women.  ' 


THE   EVE   OF   THE   SIEGE   OF   JERUSALEM.  49 

prophet  was  to  be  heard  once  more,  though  only  to  pro- 
nounce final  sentence  on  his  brethren,  in  the  name  of  God. 
The  day  chosen  for  this  word  was  ominous  ;  the  tenth 
month  of  the  ninth  year  of  Zedekiah,  about  the  tenth  of 
December,  B.C.  591  ;'  the  very  day  on  which  the  army  of 
Nebuchadnezzar  sat  down  before  Jerusalem  to  besiege  it.* 
The  form  of  a  parable,  so  frequent  with  Ezekiel,  is  used. 
The  citizens  had  done  their  best  to  prepare  for  a  hard 
siege,  but  they  felt  that,  at  best,  they  were  like  flesh  in  a 
cauldron,  to  be  sodden  by  the  fires  of  war.  ^  Ezekiel,  more- 
over, had  told  them  that  their  own  chief  men  had,  them- 
selves, made  the  city  a  flesh-pot,  by  the  innocent  blood 
shed  by  them  in  it,  and  that  these  guilty  ones  would  on 
that  account  be  given  to  the  foe.*  A  cauldron  is  now 
again  seen  on  the  fire,  and,  after  being  filled  with  the  best 
pieces  of  flesh,  is  made  to  boil  fiercely.  But  it  is  found  to 
be  foul  with  rust,  and  is  ordered  to  be  emptied.  The 
population  will  indeed  suffer  intensely,  but  they  will  not 
all  perish  in  their  city  ;  they  will  be  led  forth  to  captivity. 
The  metaphor  is  in  some  degree  mixed,  as  a  double  sense 
was  intended.  The  boiling  was  to  remove  the  rust ;  that  is, 
the  siege  was  to  reform  the  people  ;  but  failing  to  do  so, 
banishment  must  follow. 

**XXIV.  2.  Son  of  man*  (said  Jehovah),  write  down  the  exact  date 
of  this  day,  for  the  king  of  Babylon  has  on  this  very  day  begun  the 
siege  of  Jerusalem.  3.  And  utter  a  parable  to  the  House  of  Dis- 
obedience, and  say  to  them :  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  Set  on  the 
cauldron,  set  it  on,  and  pour  water  into  it.  4.  Put  the  pieces  to  l)e 
cooked  into  it,  every  good  piece,  the  thigh  and  the  shoulder  ;  fill  it  up 
with  the  best  bones.     5,  Take  only  the  best  sheep,  and  lay  a  pile  of 

1  Smend  has  b.c.  587  for  the  fall  of  the  city.    Most  say  b.c.  588. 
»  2  Kings  XXV.  1.    Jer.  lii.  4  ;  xxxix.  1.     Zech.  viii.  19. 
3  Ezek.  xi.  3-7.  ■»  Ezek.  xi.  7-11.  *  Ezek.  xxiv.  1-5. 

VOL.  VI.-4 


50  THE   EYE   OF   THE   SIEGE   OF   JERUSALEM. 

wood  under  it;  let  it  boil  well,  that  the  bones  in  it  may  be  thoroughly 
seethed. 

"6.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah:  ^  Woe  to  the  city  of  blood!  to  the 
cauldron  full  inside  with  rust ;  the  old  rust  of  which  is  not  cleansed 
out  of  it  !  Take  out  piece  by  piece ;  let  no  lot  be  cast  (to  take  one  and 
leave  another) !  7.  For  blood  was  shed  by  her,  in  her  midst.  She  let 
it  flow  on  the  naked  rock  (where  it  lies  uncovered,  calling  for  ven- 
geance) ;  she  did  not  let  it  run  on  the  ground,  that  it  might  be  hidden 
(from  the  eyes  of  God)  by  the  dust.''  8.  To  rouse  fury  and  kindle 
revenge,  I  have  let  the  blood  shed  in  her  be  thus  poured  out  on  the 
naked  rock,  that  it  might  not  be  covered ! 

"9.  Therefore,  thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Woe  to  the  city  of 
blood!  I  will  make  the  pile  of  faggots  under  thee  great.  10.  Heap  on 
wood,  fan  up  the  fire;  make  ready  the  flesh,  boil  well  the  broth,  let  the 
bones  be  burnt!  11.  Then  set  the  empty  cauldron  on  the  coals,  that 
its  brass  may  be  hot  and  glowing,  that  its  filthiness  may  be  melted  in 
it,  that  the  rust  may  be  consumed.  12.  With  weary  toil  has  Jehovah 
laboured,  but  in  vain;  its  thick  rust  has  not  been  cleansed  from  it;  let 
the  fire  burn  the  rust!  13.  Because  of  thy  filthy  lewdness;  because, 
though  I  would  have  made  thee  clean,  thou  wouldst  not  be  made  so, 
thou  shalt  be  no  more  clean  till  I  have  poured  out  my  wrath  upon 
thee.  14.  I,  Jehovah,  have  spoken  it;  it  shall  come  to  pass;  I  will  do 
it;  I  will  not  go  back  from  it; '  I  will  not  spare  or  shew  pity.  Accord- 
ing to  thy  ways,  and  according  to  thy  doings,  shall  I  *  judge  thee, 
saith  Jehovah  Adonai." 

Hitherto,  Ezekiel,  though  forced  to  refrain  from  speak- 
ing in  public,  by  the  hostility  of  his  fellow-captives,  had 
had  the  unspeakable  consolation  of  a  happy  home.  His 
wife,  the  desire  of  his  eyes,  made  sunshine  to  him  under 
his  humble  roof,  if  there  were  clouds  and  darkness  outside. 

1  Ezek.  xxiv.  6-20. 

2  The  Bedouin  are  still  careful  to  cover  even  a  few  drops  of  blood,  from  any  one, 
with  dust.  This  is  in  harmony  with  Oriental  feeling,  expressed  frequently  in  the 
Scriptures.  See  Num.  xxxv.  33  ;  Lev.  xvii.  13.  If  hidden  from  sight,  blood  seen 
by  God  or  man  would  not  bring  down  punishment  on  him  who  shed  it,  if  it  was  from 
homicide  or  wilful  injury,  and  would  prevent  the  horrors  of  blood  revenge.  There  is 
much  interesting  information  on  this  subject  in  NeiTs  Pictured  Palestine,  an  excel- 
lent collection  of  Bible  illustrations,  gathered  during  long  residence  in  the  Holy 
Land. 

3  Gesenius,  "  absolve  "  the  guilty.  *  Septuagint,  and  all  versions. 


THE    EVE    OF   THE    SIEGE    OF    JERUSALEM.  51 

But  whom  the  Lord  loveth  He  chasteneth,  and  his  faithful 
propliet  was  no  exception  to  the  universal  rule.  The  same 
day  on  which  he  uttered  these  last  words  over  the  guilty 
and  doomed  Jerusalem,  the  very  day  on  which  its  siege, 
afar  off,  began,  was  memorable  to  him  on  a  sadder  ground. 
His  address  having  closed,  and  his  audience  having  left  his 
chamber,  the  little  heaven  of  his  private  life,  hitherto  so 
unclouded,  was  in  a  moment  darkened.  An  intimation, 
communicated  we  know  not  how,  that  his  wife  was  to  die 
suddenly,  chilled  his  soul.  The  light  of  his  life  was  not  to 
wane  by  a  slow  setting,  but  to  go  down  at  midday,  leaving 
him  without  his  one  comforter  and  friend  !  Nor  was  even 
this  all.  He  was  told  that  to  make  this  terrible  sorrow  a 
lesson  to  the  community  around,  no  customary  sounds  of 
loud  wailing  were  to  rise  from  his  dwelling;  he  was  not, 
like  others,  to  mourn  for  the  loved  one  by  uncovering  the 
head  and  strewing  ashes  on  it ; '  or  to  go  barefooted  ; '  or  to 
put  on  black  sackcloth,  or  to  cover  his  face  to  the  mouth, 
as  others  did,'  as  a  sign  that  he  wished  to  be  left  in  silence  ; 
or  even  to  eat  the  food  brought  on  such  occasions  by  rela- 
tions and  friends.*  On  the  contrary,  he  was  to  put  on  his 
turban — the  usual  head-dress  of  a  priest ;  *  to  wear  his  san- 
dals, and  his  ordinary  dress  ;  to  refrain  from  covering  his 
lips  with  his  robe  ;  to  eat  every-day  food  and  not  that  of 
mourners  ;  to  bear  himself,  in  short,  as  if  the  calamity  were 
too  overpowering  to  be  expressed  by  the  common  symbols 
of  grief. 

He  had  spoken  in  the  morning  to  the  people  who  had 
come   to   him,  and   then  all   had   been  well  in  his  lowly 

»  Isa.  Ixi.  3.    Lev.  xxi.  10.  *  2  Sara.  xv.  30.    Isa.  xx.  2. 

8  Mic.  iii.  7.     Lev.  xiii.  45.     Jer.  viii.  21.    Job  ii.  12,  13. 
*  2  Sam.  iii.  35.    Dent.  xxvi.  14.    Hoe.  ix.  4.    Jer.  xvi.  7. 
6  Ezek.  xliv.  18.    Exod.  xxxix.  28. 


53  THE   EVE    OF  THE    SIEGE    OF    JERUSALEM. 

home;  but  the  evening  fell  on  the  pale  face  of  his  dead 
wife. 

Yet  Ezekiel,  strong-minded,  and  nobly  acquiescent  in 
the  good  pleasure  of  Jehovah,  even  when  it  demanded 
most  at  his  hands,  appeared  next  morning,  as  he  had  been 
directed,  without  any  display  of  the  emblems  of  sorrow. 
No  cries  of  lament  rose  from  his  desolated  home ;  he 
sought  no  seclusion.  Sympathizers,  flocking  to  condole 
with  him,  and  to  pay  the  wonted  rites  to  the  dead,  were 
confounded.  What  did  he  mean  ?  He  was  a  prophet ;  his 
action  was  no  doubt  designed.  How  could  he  thus  shock 
public  feeling  ? 

"XXIV.  21.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,'  answered  the  heart- 
broken man,  Behold,  I  am  about  to  profane  My  Sanctuary,  your  great- 
est pride  and  the  desire  of  your  eyes,  and  the  delight  of  your  soul  ;  ^ 
and  your  sons  and  your  daughters,  whom  you  have  left  (behind  you  in 
Judah),  will  fall  by  the  sword.  22.  But  (when  all  this  shall  have  hap- 
pened) ye  shall  do  as  I  have  done  (now,  in  my  great  sorrow).  You  will 
not  cover  your  lips  ^  with  your  mantle,  nor  eat  the  bread  of  mourning. 
23.  Your  turbans  will  be  on  your  heads,  and  your  sandals  on  your  feet, 
as  at  other  times  ;  you  will  make  no  loud  lamentation  nor  weep,  but 
you  will  be  overpowered  (by  such  a  penalty)  for  your  sins,  and  shall 
moan  to  each  other  (in  speechless  grief).  24.  Thus,  Ezekiel  is  a  sign 
to  you  (in  his  present  action).  You  (yourselves)  will  do,  in  that  day, 
as  he  is  doing  now,  and  when  this  happens  you  shall  know  that  I. am 
the  Lord  Jehovah  !  " 

The  fall  of  Jerusalem  had  been  the  great  event  to  which 
all  Ezekiel's  predictions  had  pointed,  and  would  be  a  com- 
plete vindication  of  his  high  commission  as  a  true  prophet. 
His  opponents  would  be  silenced,  and  no  further  hindrance 
on  their  part,  to  his  free  speech,  would  be  possible.  The 
news  brought   by   one   who   had   escaped   from   the   final 

»  Ezek.  xxiv.  21-24.  2  Mic.  iii.  11.    Jer.  vii.  14. 

3  Literally,  "beard." 


THE   EVE   OF   THE   SIEGE   OF   JERUSALEM.  53 

slaughter  of  the  storming  would  be  the  overthrow  of  those 
opposed  to  him,  and  would  establish  his  prophetic  au- 
thority. 

"25.  Verily,  0  son  of  man,'  on  that  day  when  I  take  from  them  (the 
temple,  which  was)  their  confidence,  their  supreme  boast,  the  desire  of 
their  eyes  and  the  delif^lit  of  their  souls — (when  I  take  from  them,  also,) 
the-  '  sons  and  their  daughters  ;  26.  in  that  day  will  one  that  has 
escaped,  come  to  thee,  to  tell  the  (awful)  tidings  in  thine  ears.  27. 
Then,  in  that  day,  thy  mouth  (so  long  sealed)  will  be  opened  like  that 
of  the  fugitive,  and  thou  shalt  speak  (as  a  prophet  to  the  people),  and 
no  more  (be  forced  to)  keep  silence,  and  thou  wilt  be  (seen  to  have  been) 
a  sign  to  them  ;  and  they  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah  1 " 

.  xxiv.  25-27. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   IN^VESTMENT   OF   JEKUSALEM. 

"With  the  twenty-fourth  chapter  of  Ezekiel  our  informa- 
tion respecting  the  Hebrew  captives  on  the  Chebar  ceases 
for  a  time,  and  we  have  to  return  to  Jerusalem,  now  closely 
invested  by  the  army  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  drawn  from 
many  subject  nations.  It  would  seem,  indeed,  that  con- 
tingents had  been  furnished,  at  least  before  the  close  of  the 
siege,  by  Ammon,  Moab,  Edom,  and  the  Philistines,  while 
the  Phoenicians,  if  they  did  not  actively  aid  the  Ohaldae- 
ans,  were  bitterly  hostile  to  Judah  in  feeling.'  So  little 
had  come  of  the  projected  league  of  all  Palestine  against 
Nebuchadnezzar.  His  approach  had  dissolved  it,  and  let 
loose  all  the  deep-seated  hatred  towards  the  Hebrews, 
which  had  for  a  time  been  dissembled. 

The  investment  of  Jerusalem  began  in  the  early  months 
of  the  ninth  year  of  Zedekiah — about  December,  B.C.  591. 
As  in  similar  cases,  the  population  had  been  greatly  in- 
creased by  fugitives  from  the  country  round  ;  but  large 
supplies  of  provisions  had  been  laid  in,  and  the  citizens 
trusted  that  Pharaoh  Hophra,  who  had  just  ascended  the 
throne  of  Egypt,'  would  speedily  raise  the  siege  by  an 
army  sent  to  their  relief. 

The  new  Pharaoh  was,  indeed,  a  man  from  whom  much 
might  be  hoped.     Fond  of  war  and  impatient  of  a  quiet 

i  Ezek.  XXV.  and  xxvi.  ^  Lenormant  says  in  B.C.  589.     Brugsch,  in  b.c.  581. 


TnE   IN^VESTMENT   OF   JERUSALEM.  55 

life,  he  was  a  great  patron  of  the  mercenary  Greek  soldiers 
who,  under  captains  of  their  own  race,  hired  themselves, 
like  the  free  lances  of  the  Middle  Ages,  to  any  prince  will- 
ing to  engage  them.  Ilophra  made  Egypt  more  than  ever 
their  richest  harvest-ground,  and  their  bands  formed  the 
strength  of  his  army.  His  father^s  successful  campaign 
against  Nubia  shewed  that,  since  the  great  disaster  of  Car- 
chemish,  the  country  had  regained  its  military  spirit. 
Yielding  to  his  personal  ambition  and  the  counsels  of  his 
mercenaries,  he  resolved  to  return  to  the  policy  of  Necho 
II.,  and  once  more  attempt  the  conquest  of  Syria,  now 
held  by  the  Babylonians.  The  times  seemed  propitious. 
Wearied,  as  we  have  seen,  of  the  vassalage  to  the  Chal- 
daeans,  all  Palestine  was  ready  to  rise.  In  Jerusalem,  espe- 
cially, a  strong  party  had  forced  Zedekiah  into  an  Egyp- 
tian alliance.  Trusting  to  Hophra,  all  the  land  was  in 
revolt,  a  few  months  after  his  accession.  But  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, with  the  swift  decision  that  marked  him,  hastened 
from  the  Euphrates,  by  forced  marches,  on  the  first  report 
of  the  rebellion  ;  uncertain  which  of  the  petty  kingdoms  to 
attack  first.  To  use  the  language  of  Ezekiel,  he  stopped 
his  chariot  at  the  point  where  the  two  roads,  to  Ammon 
and  Jerusalem,  branched  off,  and  only  decided  on  taking 
the  latter  after  consulting  his  oracles.*  Jerusalem  was  the 
soul  of  the  coalition  against  him.  Its  territory  united  the 
confederates  of  the  coast  to  those  of  the  east  of  Jordan  and 
of  the  desert,  and  formed  a  link  between  Egypt  and  southern 
Syria.  One  Chaldaean  army  was  sent,  therefore,  to  ravage 
Phoenicia  and  commence  the  blockade  of  Tyre,  while  Neb- 
uchadnezzar himself  turned,  with  the  bulk  of  his  troops, 
against  Jerusalem.     Not  daring  to  oppose  such  a  force  in 

i  Ezek.  xxi.  21. 


56  THE  INVESTMENT  OF  JERUSALEM. 

the  open  field,  Zedekiah  forthwith  shut  himself  up  in  his 
capital,  and  the  siege  began.  Judah  had  been  spared  twice 
before,  but  the  Ohaldsean  was  now  resolved  to  destroy  it. 
That  its  king,  whom  he  had  raised  to  the  throne,  should 
have  perjured  himself,  after  having  sworn  by  his  own  God, 
and  that  his  jDeople,  though  weakened  by  the  exile  of  the 
leading  spirits  of  the  kingdom,  should  have  proved  so  reso- 
lutely troublesome,  determined  Nebuchadnezzar  to  use  the 
harshest  measures.  He  therefore  desolated  the  country  at 
his  leisure,  delivering  his  captives  to  the  cruel  mercies  of 
the  Philistines  and  Edomites,  and  appeared,  at  last,  on  the 
north  plateau  of  Jerusalem,  only  after  he  had  laid  waste 
the  whole  land  with  fire  and  sword.' 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  credit  of  Jeremiah  as  a 
true  prophet  necessarily  increased,  till  even  the  vacillating 
Zedekiah, — breaking  loose  for  a  moment  from  his  counsel- 
lors,'' and  imitating  the  example  of  Hezekiah,  who  con- 
sulted Isaiah,  the  great  prophet  of  that  day,  in  a  time  of 
similar  peril,' — deigned  to  send  two  of  his  officials,  Pashur 
and  Zephaniah,  priests  of  high  rank,''  but  of  the  Egyptian 
faction,  and  thus  opposed  to  Jeremiah  in  politics,*  humbly 
''  to  enquire  of  Jehovah, ^^  through  him,  respecting  the 
future.*  The  envoys  found  the  seer  in  the  temple  ;  but 
his  answer  to  them  was  dispiriting  in  the  extreme.  The 
king  should  hear  the  truth,  however  painful.  Shut  up  in 
the  city,  without  the  possibility  of  escape,  how  few  men 
would  have  taken  their  lives  in  their  hands,  by  braving  the 

i  Lenormant,  Hist.  Ancierme  de  P  Orient,  p.  492.    Maspero,  p.  500. 

a  Jer.  xxi.  1,  2.  3  2  Kings  xix.  2, 

<  1  Chron.  xxiv.  9.  Malchiah,  the  father  of  this  Pashur,  was  head  of  the  fifth 
course  ;  Zephaniah  was  the  deputy  high  priest.  He  is  often  mentioned,  and  was  at 
last  slain  by  Nebuchadnezzar  at  Riblah.  See  Jer.  xxix.  25  ;  xxxvii.  3  ;  lii.  34. 
Another  Pashur  is  mentioned  in  Jer.  xx.  1.  ^  jgr  xxxviii.  1,  4. 

"  Jer.  xxi.  1,  2.    See  the  parallel  cases  of  Hezekiah  and  Josiah,  2  Kings  xxii.  13. 


THE   INVESTMENT   OF   JERUSALEM.  57 

anger  of  a  despot  and  his  court,  through  whom  he  had 
already  suffered  much.  But  Jeremiah  knew  no  fear  when 
he  had  to  speak  for  God. 

To  the  question  whether  the  king  of  Babylon  would  be 
driven  away  from  Jerusalem  by  a  miracle,  like  that  by 
which  the  city  had  been  saved  from  Sennacherib,  in  the 
reign  of  Hezekiah,  he  forthwith  replied  : 

♦'XXI.  4.  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,'  Behold  (instead  of 
turning  back  the  weapons  of  war  in  the  hands  of  the  Chaldeans),  1  will 
turn  back  those  in  your  own  hands,  with  which  you  fight  (from  the 
walls)  against  the  king  of  Babylon  and  the  Chaldaeans,  who  besiege  you 
outside,  and  will  bring  them  in  (for  a  last  struggle),  to  the  very  heart 
of  this  city.  5.  I,  Myself,  also  will  fight  against  you,  with  an  out- 
stretched hand  and  a  strong  arm,  in  anger,  and  fury,  and  fierce  wrath. 
6.  And  I  will  smite  the  inhabitants  of  this  city,  man  and  beast ;  they 
shall  die  by  a  sore  pestilence.  7.  And  afterwards,  says  Jehovah,  I  will 
deliver  Zedekiah,  the  king  of  Judah,  and  his  servants  (the  court),  and 
the  people  left  in  this  city  from  the  pestilence,  the  sword,  and  the  fam- 
ine, into  the  hand  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon,  and  into  the 
hand  of  their  enemies,  and  of  them  that  seek  their  life,  and  he  will  slay 
them  with  the  edge  of  the  sword  :  he  shall  not  spare  them,  nor  have 
pity  or  mercy." 

He  then  proceeded  to  point  out  to  the  citizens  the  only 
means  of  safety. 

**8.  As  to  the  people,  say  to  them,  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  See,  I  set 
before  you  the  way  of  life  and  the  way  of  death. ^  9.  He  that  stays  in 
this  city  shall  die  by  the  sword,  the  famine,  and  the  pestilence.  But 
he  that  goes  out  and  gives  himself  up  to  tTie  Chaldasans,  that  besiege 
you,  he  shall  live;  his  life,  but  nothing  more,  will  be  granted  him. 
10.  For  I  have  set  My  face  against'  this  city,  for  evil  and  not  for  good, 
says  Jehovah;  it  shall  be  given  into  the  hand  of  the  king  of  Babylon, 
and  he  shall  burn  it  with  fire." 

Tlien  followed  a  warning  to  the  royal  family. 

1  Jer.  xxi.  4-10.  «  Deut.  xxx.  19. 


58  THE   IN^VESTMEKT   OF   JERUSALEM. 

"11.  And  as  to  the  house  of  the  king  of  Judah,'  hear  the  word  of 
Jehovah:  12.  0  house  of  David  (king  and  royal  family  together),  thus 
saith  Jehovah,  Do  your  duty  (as  your  forefathers  did,'^  by  sitting  in 
the  gate  of  the  city)  every  morning,  to  do  justice  (as  the  judges  of  the 
people),  and  to  snatch  the  man  that  is  being  plundered  from  the  hand 
of  his  oppressor;  that  My  fury  may  not  burst  out  against  you  like  fire, 
and  burn  unquenchably,  because  of  the  evil  of  your  doings!  " 

Jerusalem,  as  a  whole,  has  roused  the  anger  of  God. 

"13.  Behold,  I  am  against  thee,  0  Jerusalem,  inhabitress  of  the  val- 
ley (beneath  the  temple),  and  of  the  (table-land)  rock'  (beyond),*  saith 
Jehovah — who  says  to  herself — '  who  shall  come  down  against  us  ? 
Who  shall  enter  our  (secure)  retreats?'  14.  But  I  will  punish  you 
according  to  the  fruit  of  your  doings,  saith  Jehovah ;  and  I  will  kindle 
a  fire  in  the  forest-(like  dwellings)  of  your  city,  and  it  will  devour  every- 
thing round  it."* 

Then  followed  a  final  command  to  take  a  message  to  the 
king  personally. 

"XXII.  1.  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  Go  down  to  the  palace  of  the  king 
of  Judah,  and  speak  this  word  there,  3.  and  say.  Hear  the  word  of 
Jehovah,  0  king  of  Judah,  that  sittest  on  the  throne  of  David — thou, 
and  thy  servants,  and  thy  people  that  enter  by  these  (temple?)  gates: 
3.  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  Execute  justice  and  righteousness  (as  supreme 
judge  of  the  state),  and  snatch  the  man  that  is  being  plundered,  from 
the  hand  of  the  oppressor;  and  do  not  (yourself)  oppress,  or  do  violence 
to  the  stranger,  the  fatherless,  or  the  widow,  or  shed  innocent  blood 

»  Jer.  XX.  11-14  ;  xxii.  1-3.  20  sam.  xv.  2-4. 

3  Literally,  "the  rock  of  the  Mishor."  Mishor  is  the  name  for  the  smooth  upland 
downs  of  Moab  (Deut.  iii.  10  ;  Josh.  xiii.  17  ;  xx.  8  ;  Jer.  xlviii.  8,  21).  Derived  from 
the  root  yashar,  "  even,  level,  plain,"  it  naturally  came  to  be  used  figuratively  for 
equity,  right,  righteous,  and  uprightness  (Mai.  ii.  G  ;  Isa.  xi.  4  ;  Ps.  xlv.  7  ;  Ixvii.  4  ; 
cxliii.  10),  and  thus  the  name  was  equivalent  to  "•  the  rock  of  justice,  righteousness, 
or  equity  "—a  name  on  which  the  people  prided  themselves, 

*  On  all  sides  except  the  north,  Jerusalem  is  surrounded  by  valleys,  and  the  valley 
between  Zion  and  Moriah,  as  well  as  other  parts  of  the  city,  made  it,  still  more,  an 
"inhabitress  of  the  valley,"  while  the  table-land  to  the  north,  connecting  the  city 
with  the  country  beyond,  was,  probably,  more  or  less  covered  with  houses. 

s  The  word  used  for  "  forest "  is  yaar,  or  "  scrub."  Portions  of  this  are  even  now 
constantly  set  on  fire  by  the  charcoal  burners,  who  thus  often  burn  down  a  whole 
hill-side. 


THE   INVESTMENT   OF   JERUSALEM.  59 

in  this  place!  4.  For  if  you  really  act  thus,'  kings  sitting  on  the  throne 
of  David,  riding  in  chariots  and  on  horses,  shall  pass  through  the  gates 
of  this  palace — they  and  their  servants  and  their  people.  5.  But  if 
you  will  not  hear  these  words,  I  swear  by  Myself,  says  Jehovah,  that 
this  house,  the  temple,  shall  become  a  desolation! 

"6.  For  thus  saith  Jehovah,  to  the  house  of  the  king  of  Judah:  Thou 
(Jerusalem)  art  to  Me  as  the  (rich)  Gilead  and  as  the  head  of  Lebanon ; 
yet,  surely,  I  will  make  thee  desolate,  like  cities  that  are  deserted.  7. 
I  will  set  apart  destroyers  against  thee,  every  one  with  his  weapon, 
and  they  will  cut  down  tliy  best  cedars,  and  throw  them  on  the  fire. 
8.  And  many  peoples  will  pass  by  this  city,  and  say  each  to  the  other, 
'  Why  has  Jehovah  done  thus  to  this  great  city  ? '  9.  And  they  will 
answer,  '  Because  they  forsook  the  covenant  of  Jehovah,  their  God,  and 
worshipped  and  served  foreign  gods ! '  "  •^ 

The  sins  of  the  kings  had  been  too  surely  one  of  the 
causes  of  the  ruin  of  his  country  to  permit  Jeremiah 
to  spare  the  throne  in  his  preaching.  Yet  the  glorious 
anticipation  of  the  advent  of  a  great  king  lighted  up 
the  future  ;  and  while  he  felt  compelled  sternly  to  denounce 
the  rulers  of  his  own  and  of  past  days,  he  was  too  true  a 
patriot,  and  too  zealous  for  the  final  triumph  of  the  king- 
dom of  God,  to  keep  back  this  cheering  prospect. 

"XXIII.  1.  Woe  to  the  shepherds '—he  cried  about  this  time— 
who  destroy  and  scatter  the  sheep  of  My  pasture !  saith  Jehovah.  2. 
Therefore,  thus  saith  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  respecting  the  shep- 
herds that  feed  My  people :  Ye  have  scattered  and  driven  away  My 
flock,  and  have  not  given  heed  to  them.  Behold,  I  will  visit  on  you 
the  evil  of  your  doings,  saith  Jehovah.  3.  But  I  will  gather  the  rem- 
nant of  My  flock  out  of  all  countries  whither  I  have  driven  them,  and 
bring  them  back  again  to  their  pastures,  and  they  shall  be  fruitful 
and  increase.     4.    And  I  will  set  up  shepherds  over  them  who  shall 

'  Jer.  xxii.  4:-9.  The  rest  of  the  chapter  is  given  at  vol.  v.  pp.  339,  348,  349.  It 
is  apparently  of  an  earlier  date  than  these  verses. 

2  There  never  were  cedars  in  Jerusalem,  but  the  prophet  is  thinking  of  Lebanon, 
of  which  he  has  just  spoken,  and  transfers  its  glory,  in  imagination,  to  the  doomed 
city.  Gilead  was  the  ideal  of  pastoral  wealth,  Lebanon  of  majesty,  with  its  cedars 
and  its  snowy  crest.  3  Kings.    Jer.  xxiii.  1-4. 


60  THE   INVESTMENT   OF   JERUSALEM. 

feed  them,  and  they  shall  fear  no  more,  nor  be  dismayed,  nor  be  lost, 
saith  Jehovah!  5.  Behold  the  days  come,*  saith  Jehovah,  that  I  will 
raise  unto  David  a  righteous  Branch,  who  will  rule  as  King,  and  act 
wisely,  and  execute  justice  and  righteousness  in  the  land.  6.  In  his 
days  Judah  shall  be  saved  (from  her  enemies),  and  Israel  dwell  in 
security,  and  this  is  the  name  by  which  he  shall  be  called — 'Jehovah 
our  Righteousness.'  ^  7.  Therefore,  behold,  the  days  come,  saith  Jeho- 
vah, that  they  shall  no  more  say,  '  By  the  life  of  Jehovah,  who  brought 
up  the  sons  of  Israel  from  Egypt,'  8.  but  '  By  the  life  of  Jehovah,  who 
brought  up,  and  led,  the  seed  of  the  house  of  Israel,  from  the  land  of 
the  North,  and  from  all  lands  whither  I  have  driven  them,'  and  they 
shall  dwell  in  their  own  land." 

Next  to  the  bad  kings,  the  bad  prophets  had  been  the 
main  cause  of  the  ruin  of  the  country.  These,  therefore, 
Jeremiah  fitly  passes  on  to  denounce. 

"9.  My  heart  within  me  is  broken,  all  my  bones  shake'  (for  terror); 
I  am  like  one  drunk,  like  a  man  overpowered  by  wine,  because  of  Jeho- 
vah and  His  holy  words.  10.  For  the  land  is  full  of  adulterers;  yea, 
the  land  withers  under  a  curse;  the  pastures  of  the  wilderness  dry 
up,  for  the  conduct  *  of  the  people  is  evil ;  they  are  strong,  not  to  do 
right,  but  to  do  wrong!  11.  For  both  prophet  and  priest  are  unholy. 
Even  in  My  own  house,  (the  temple),  have  I  found  their  wickedness, 
saith  Jehovah.  12.  Therefore,  their  way  will  be  slippery  to  them  in 
the  darkness  ''  that  is  coming ;  they  shall  be  driven  on  and  fall  in  it. 
For  I  will  bring  evil  upon  them,  the  year  of  their  punishment,  says 

*  Jer.  xxiii.  5  12. 

'  Bishop  Thirlwall  proposes  that  this  be  read,  "  Jehovah  f,<f  oar  Righteousness," 
from  the  analogy  of  Jehovah  Shammah= Jehovah  is  there  (Ezek.  xlviii.  35.  See 
Thirlw aM' 8  Jiemains,  vol.  iii.  p.  471).  It  would  then  imply  that  Jehovah  was  recog- 
nized by  him  as  the  object  of  worship  and  source  and  ideal  of  righteousness,  which, 
with  all  its  blessings,  came  to  His  people  from  Him,  alone.  Keil,  De  Wette,  and 
Naegelsbach,  pronounce  for  the  name  as  in  the  A.  V.  Ewald,  Arnheim,  Streane, 
and  Hitzig,  for  the  rendering  adopted  by  Bishop  Thirlwall. 

3  Literally,  "  are  loose,  or  weak."  *  Course. 

5  On  the  way  to  Beit  Jibrin  darkness  overtook  me.  The  last  part  of  the  road  was 
down  a  steep  hill,  by  a  track  as  rough  and  slippery  as  loose  stones  in  one  place,  and 
smooth  sheets  of  rock  in  another,  could  make  it.  It  was  impossible  to  guide  my 
horse,  so  that  I  could  only  leave  it  to  itself,  trusting  its  sure-footedness,  to  take  me 
to  the  bottom  safely,  which  it  did.  Such  a  dei?cent  brought  forcibly  to  my  mind  the 
words  of  the  prophet :  "  Their  way  will  be  slippery  to  them  in  the  darkness." 


THE  INVESTMENT  OF  JERUSALEM.  61 

Jehovah.  13.  I  saw  folly'  among  the  prophets  of  Samaria;  they 
prophesied  in  the  name  of  Baal,  and  led  My  people  Israel  astray. 
14.  But  I  have  seen  among  the  prophets  of  Jerusalem  (also),  a  hor- 
rible thing;  they  commit  adultery,-  and  walk  in  lies,  and  strengthen 
the  hands  of  evil  doers,  so  that  no  one  turns  from  his  evil  way;  all  the 
people  (of  Jerusalem)  are  become  to  Me  as  Sodom,  all  its  inhabitants 
like  those  of  Gomorrah ! 

"  15.  Therefore,  thus  saith  Jehovah  of  Hosts  concerning  the  proph- 
ets: Behold,  I  will  feed  them  with  wormwood  and  give  them  poison- 
water  to  drink,  ^  for,  from  the  prophets  of  Jerusalem,  pollution  has 
gone  out  through  the  whole  land.  16.  Thus  saith  Jehovah  of  Hosts: 
Do  not  listen  to  the  words  of  the  prophets  who  prophesy  to  you.  They 
deceive  you;  they  speak  a  vision  of  their  own  inventing;  *  not  out  of  the 
mouth  of  Jehovah.  17.  They  say  continually  to  them  that  despise  Me: 
'  Jehovah  has  said.  Ye  shall  have  peace,'  and  to  every  one  who  walks 
in  the  imagination  of  his  own  heart  they  say:  *  No  evil  shall  come 
upon  you.'  18.  But  who  of  them  has  stood  in  the  counsel  of  Jehovah, 
to  see  and  hear  His  Word  ?  Who  (of  them)  has  marked  and  heard 
His  Word  ? 

"  19.  Behold  a  whirlwind  of  Jehovah,  a  storm  of  wrath,  is  gone 
forth,  a  rolling  hurricane ;  it  shall  whirl  round  the  head  of  the  wicked. 
20.  The  wrath  of  Jehovah  will  not  turn  back  till  He  has  carried  out 
and  performed  the  thoughts  of  His  heart.  At  the  end  of  the  days  ye 
will  understand  it  perfectly.  21.  I  have  not  sent  their  prophets,  yet 
they  ran ;  I  have  not  spoken  to  them,  yet  they  prophesied  !  22.  But 
if  they  had  stood  in  My  counsel,  they  would  have  caused  My  people  to 
know  My  words,  that  they  should  turn  from  their  evil  way,  and  from 
the  evil  of  their  doings." 

The  impossibility  of  unworthy  prophets  escaping  detec- 
tion and  punishment  is  evident. 

"23.  Am  I  a  God  (only  over  what  is  near)  at  hand,  saith  Jehovah, 
and  not  (also)  a  God  (who  sees)  afar  off?  24.  Can  any  one  hide  himself 
in  secret  places,  so  that  I  shall  not  see  him  ?  saith  Jehovah.  Do  I  not 
fill  heaven  and  earth  ?  says  Jehovah.  25.  I  have  heard  what  the 
prophets  say,  who  prophesy  lies  in  My  name,  saying,  '  I  have  dreamed, 

^  Jer.  xxiii.   13-25.      The  word  means   "tasteless,  unsalted,"  hence  "irra- 
tional." 
a  Idolatry.  s  yge  vol.  v.  pp.  187,  19U.     See  also  Jer.  viii.  14. 

*  Literally,  'heart." 


62  THE   II^VESTME:n:T   of   JERUSALEM. 

I  have  dreamed.'  2G.  How  long  will  it  be  in  the  hearts  of  the  prophets 
to  prophesy  lies,  and  to  be  prophets  of  falsehood  of  their  own  inven- 
tion ?  ^  27.  They  think  they  will  make  My  people  forget  My  name, 
through  their  dreams,''  which  they  tell  each  to  the  other,  as  their 
fathers  forgot  My  name  for  Baal,  28.  Let  the  prophet  who  really  has 
a  dream  (from  Me)  ttU  it ;  let  him  who  has  received  a  word  from  Me, 
speak  it  exactly.  What  has  straw  to  do  with  wheat  ?  (why  do  they 
mix  lies  with  My  truth  ?)  saith  Jehovah  !  29.  Is  not  My  word  like  a 
fire ;  does  it  not  break  in  pieces  the  heart  as  a  hammer  breaks  in  pieces 
the  rock  ?  * 

"30.  Therefore,  I  am  against  the  prophets,  saith  Jehovah,  that 
steal  My  word  one  from  the  other.  31.  Behold,  I  am  against  the 
prophets,  saith  Jehovah,  who  use  their  tongues,  and  (without  authority 
from  Me)  say  '  He  saith.'  *  32.  Thus  saith  Jehovah  :  Behold,  I  am 
against  those  that  prophesy  lying  dreams,  and  repeat  them,  and  lead 
astray  My  people  by  their  lies,  and  by  their  boasting  (of  communica- 
tions from  Me).  Yet  I  did  not  send  or  commission  them,  and  they  are 
no  good  whatever  to  this  people,  saith  Jehovah. 

"33.  And  if  this  people,  or  one  of  these  (unworthy)  prophets,  or 
(base)  priests,  ask  you  :  *  What  burden  *  have  you  received  from  Jeho- 
vah to-day  ? '  say  to  them :  *  What  burden  have  I  received  (to-day)  ? 
This:  I  will  cast  you  off  (as  an  intolerable  burden),  says  Jehovah.'  " 
34.  And  the  prophet,  the  priest,  and  the  people  who  talk  lightly  of 
*  The   burden  of  Jehovah,'   [  will  punish  that  man  and  his  house. 


1  Heart.    Jer.  xxiii.  26-34. 

2  There  were,  thus,  some  true  prophetic  dreams,  sent  from  Jehovah,  Num,  xii.  6, 
1  Sam.  xxviii.  6.  1  Kings  iii.  5.  Job  iv.  13.;  vii.  14  ;  xxxiii.  15.  Joel  ii.  28.  The 
dreams  meant  here,  are  pretended  dreams,  published  as  sent  from  Jehovah  or  from 
idols,  and  interpreted  by  heathen  methods.  In  this  case  the  pretending  dreamer  and 
interpreter  were  to  be  stoned.  Deut.  xiii.  2-12.  See  Lenormant,  La  Divination,  p. 
147. 

3  Eichhorn.  "  Let  the  prophet  who  has  a  dream  tell  it  as  a  dream  ;  and  let  him 
who  has  My  word  repeat  it  exactly.  What  has  straw  to  do  among  corn  ?  says  Jeho- 
vah. Does  not  My  word  bum  like  fire  ?  Does  it  not  break  in  pieces  the  heart  as  the 
iron  hammer  does  the  rocks  ? " 

*  It  is  striking  to  notice  how  the  bitter  divisions  of  the  day  united  the  most 
opposite  parties  against  the  old  national  faith.  The  aristocracy  found  themselves 
supported  in  their  heathen  and  Egyptian  bias  by  the  bulk  of  the  priests,  and  even  of 
the  prophets,  who,  as  an  order,  were  the  natural  antagonists  of  the  moribund  priest- 
hood. 

6  The  Hebrew  word  is  Massa.     For  its  meaning,  see  vol.  v.  p.  384. 

«  Or,  "  Ye  are  the  burden,  saith  Jehovah."  This  reading  is  obtained  from  another 
division  of  the  words  in  the  Hebrew,  without  any  change  of  letters. 


THE   INVESTMENT    OF    JERUSALEM.  63 

35.  Ye  shall  speak  thus,'  caclito  his  neighbour,  and  each  to  his  brother: 
'What  has  Jehovah  answered?  and  what  has  Jehovah  said?'  36. 
But  ye  shall  no  more  use  the  phrase,  *  Burden  of  Jehovah,'  for  it  shall 
itself  be  a  burden  (of  guilt  to  every  man  who  uses  it),  for  ye  misuse 
and  pervert  the  words  of  the  living  God,  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  our  God, 
(of  which  this  phrase  is  one).  37.  You  shall  say  also  to  the  prophet, 
'  What  has  Jehovah  answered  thee  ?  and  what  has  Jehovah  said  ? ' 
38.  But  if  you  speak  of  '  The  burden  of  Jehovah,'  thus  saith  Jehovah: 
Because  you  use  this  phrase,  *  The  burden  of  Jehovah '  (in  ridicule  of 
His  true  prophets),  and  I  have  sent  to  you,  saying,  '  You  shall  not  Gay» 
"  The  burden  of  Jehovah,"  '  39.  I,  even  I,  will  take  you  up  as  My  bur- 
den, and  cast  both  you,  and  the  city  which  I  gave  to  you  and  your 
fathers,  far  from  My  sight,  40.  and  bring  everlasting  shame  on  you, 
and  perpetual  undying  contempt." 

The  message  sent  to  the  king  closes  with  a  parabolic 
vision,  like  that  seen  by  the  prophet  Amos."  The  date 
at  which  it  was  first  spoken  is  stated  to  have  been  some 
time  after  Nebuchadnezzar  had  carried  off  King  Jehoia- 
chin  and  the  chief  men  of  the  nation,  with  the  carpenters, 
smiths,  and  other  artisans  of  Jerusalem,  as  prisoners,  to 
Babylon.  The  population  left  in  the  city  fancied  they 
had  been  spared  as  better  than  those  so  heavily  punished  ; 
but  Jeremiah  tells  them  that  the  very  reverse  was  the  fact. 
He  saw  in  spirit,  two  baskets  of  figs  set  before  the  temple  ;  ^ 
one  specially  good,  like  the  delicate  June  fruit  which  anti- 
cipated the  harvest  in  August  ;*  the  other  so  bad  as  to  be 
uneatable  ^ — and  he  recognized  in  the  two  a  striking  pict- 
ure of  the  true  condition  of  the  kingdom.  On  the  one 
side,  the  young  king,  full  of  promise,  had  been  led  off  into 
captivity  with  the  noblest,  bravest,  and  most  useful  men 
of  the  city.     The  hope  of  the  future  rested  on  these.     On 

*  Jer.  xxiii.  35-40.  '  Amos  viii,  1-3.  ^  Jer.  xxiv.  1-3. 

*  Isa.  xxviii.  4.    IIos.  ix.  10.     Mic.  vii.  1.    Nah.  iii.  12. 

»  The  bad  figs  may  have  been  those  of  the  sycamore,  which  contain  a  bitter  juice, 
or  they  may  have  been  decayed  or  rotten.    Tristram,  Nat.  Hist,  of  Bible,  p.  399. 


64  THE   INVESTMENT   OF   JERUSALEM. 

the  other  hand,  there  was  the  weak  vassal-king  Zedekiah, 
with  the  feeble  and  corrupt  remnant  of  the  population  left 
behind  ;  untaught  by  the  terrible  lesson  of  the  fall  of  their 
brethren,  and  unteachable.  Some  of  the  choicest  spirits  of 
the  nation  were  now  on  the  banks  of  the  Chebar — such  as 
Daniel,  his  three  companions,  and  the  prophet  Ezekiel — 
and  they  would  kindle  a  better  life  in  their  fellow-captives. 
But  in  Jerusalem  there  was  no  such  prospect  of  spiritual 
revival.  The  word  of  Jehovah,  that  accompanied  the 
vision,  ran  as  follows  : 

"XXIV.  5.  Thus  saith  Jehovah,*  the  God  of  Israel:  As  one  looks 
with  pleasure  on  good  fruit  (and  guards  and  preserves  it),  so  will  I  look 
for  their  good  upon  the  captives  of  Judah,  whom  I  have  sent  away 
from  this  place  to  the  land  of  the  Chaldfeans.  6.  For  I  will  set  My 
eyes  on  them  for  their  good,  and  will  bring  them  back  again  to  this 
land,  and  I  will  build  them  up  and  not  destroy  them;  I  will  plant 
them  and  not  pluck  them  up.  7.  And  I  will  give  them  a  heart  to 
know  Me,  that  I  am  Jehovah;  and  they  shall  be  My  people,  and  I  will 
be  their  God,  for  they  will  return  to  Me  with  their  whole  heart. 

"8.  And  as  men  throw  away  bad,  uneatable  figs,  verily,  so,  says 
Jehovah,  will  I  treat  Zedekiah,  the  king  of  Judah,  and  his  princes,  and 
the  remnant  of  Jerusalem,  and  those  that  remain  in  this  land,  and 
also  those  dwelling  in  the  land  of  Egypt.  9.  T  will  make  them  an 
object  of  shuddering  pity,  and  give  them  up  to  calamity  in  all  king- 
doms of  the  earth;  and  will  make  them  a  contempt,  a  byword,  a 
mockery,  and  the  butt  of  cursing,  in  all  places  whither  I  drive  them. 
10.  And  I  will  send  the  sword,  the  famine,  and  the  pestilence  upon 
them,  till  they  are  wholly  consumed  from  off  the  land  that  I  gave  to 
them  and  to  their  fathers." 

The  moral  corruption  and  social  anarchy  of  Jerusalem 
must  have  been  extreme,  to  call  forth  such  denunciations 
from  one  of  its  own  citizens  ;  a  man  not  censorious  or 
cynical,  but  full  of  tender  loyalty  to  his  fellow-country- 
men. But  amidst  all  this  evil  there  were  still  some  of 
»  Jer.  xxiv.  5-10. 


THE   INVESTMENT   OF   JERUSALEM.  66 

*'the  poor''  and  ^^meek"'  of  the  land,  who  climg  to  the 
religion  of  their  fathers,  and  yearned  for  the  revival  of 
faith  in  Jehovah  and  obedience  to  His  law.  With  them, 
among  the  remnant  in  Judah,  lay  the  future  of  the  Church 
of  God.  They  were  the  true  Israel,  and,  as  such,  Jehovah 
was  mindful  of  His  covenant  with  their  fathers.  To  sus- 
tain them  amidst  the  gloom,  around  and  before  them,  an 
assurance  of  the  certain  realization  of  the  Divine  promises 
was  only  what  might  be  expected  from  the  gracious  God 
whom  they  so  faithfully  served.  Jeremiah,  as  the  centre 
of  this  feeble  brotherhood,  felt  his  warmest  sympathies 
drawn  out  towards  them,  and  gladly  turned  aside  from  his 
terrible  condemnations,  to  announce  the  future  salvation 
prepared  by  God  for  His  true  people,  after  they  had  been 
purified  by  exile.  The  whole  chosen  race,  so  far  as  it 
returned  to  its  allegiance  to  Jehovah,  would,  one  day,  be 
restored.  They  would  come  back  to  their  own  land,  and  a 
new  spiritual  covenant,  written,  not  on  tables  -of  stone,  but 
on  their  hearts,  would  be  made  with  them,  and  they  would 
forget  their  past  misery.  Jeremiah  was,  therefore,  com- 
manded to  write  in  a  book  ^'all  the  words''  which  Jeliovah 
thus  condescended  to  communicate  for  the  comfort  of  His 
hidden  ones  ;  ''For,  lo,"  ^  He  said,  ''the  days  come  that  I 
will  bring  back  again  the  captivity  of  My  people  Israel, 
and  I  will  cause  them  to  return  to  the  land  that  I  gave  to 
their  fathers,  and  they  shall  possess  it." 

The  consolation  thus  graciously  vouchsafed,  is  thrown, 
in  its  introductory  sentences,  into  a  dramatic  form,'  for 
greater  effect.  A  future  generation  is  jiictured  as  hearing, 
from  afar,  the  bitter  cry  of  the  exiles,  amidst  the  judg- 
ments on  the  heathen  around  them,  and  Jehovah  is  intro- 

1  Jer.  XXX.  1-3.  '  Jer.  xxi.  4-7. 

VOL.  VL-5 


66  THE    INVESTMENT   OF   JERUSALEM. 

duced  as  ministering  words  of  cheer  to  them,  by  a  promise 
of  their  future  deliverance. 

"XXX.  5.  {The people  ;)'  We  hear  the  cry  of  terror  and  dismay,  and, 
as  yet,  there  is  no  deliverance!  6.  {The  prophet :)  Ask  and  see.  A 
man  cannot  bear  a  child ;  why  then  such  wails,  like  those  of  a  woman 
in  trouble?  Why  do  I  see  every  man  with  his  hands  on  his  loins,  like 
a  woman  in  her  pain,  and  all  faces  turned  pale?  7.  {The  people:) 
Alas,  for  that  day  of  Jehovah,  often  predicted  !  The  day  of  His  judg- 
ments is  great  ;  it  is  a  time  of  distress  to  Jacob.  {Jehovah:)  But  he 
shall  be  saved  from  it." 

The  great  theme  of  the  discourse — the  deliverance  from 
exile — now  begins. 

"8.  In  that  day,  says  Jehovah,  I  will  break  the  yoke  (of  the  king 
of  Babylon)  from  off  thy  neck  (0  Israel),  and  burst  asunder  thy 
bonds,  and  aliens  shall  no  longer  make  thee  their  servant.  9.  But 
Israel  shall  be  the  servant  of  Jehovah,  his  God,  and  of  David,  his  king, 
whom  I  will  raise  up  to  him.^ 

"10.  Therefore,  fear  thou  not,  0  My  servant  Jacob,  saith  Jehovah, 
and  be  not  dismayed,  0  Israel ;  for,  lo,  I  will  save  thee  from  the  far- 
distant  land  (of  thy  exile),  and  thy  children  from  the  land  of  their 
captivity,  and  Jacob  shall  return,  and  rest  in  peace,  no  one  disturbing 
him.  11.  For  1  am  with  thee,  says  Jehovah,  to  save  thee;  for  I  shall 
make  an  utter  end  of  the  nations  among  which  I  have  scattered  thee, 
but  I  will  not  make  a  full  end  of  thee ;  yet  I  will  chastise  thee  according 
to  justice,  for  I  cannot  leave  thee  unpunished.  13.  For,  thus  saith 
Jehovah,  thy  wound  is  past  healing;  the  blow  that  has  struck  thee  is 
desperate.  13.  No  one  cares  for  thy  state;  thou  hast  no  medicines  for 
thy  sore,  to  press  it  together,  or  bind  it,  or  any  plaster.  14.  All  thy 
lovers  have  forgotten  thee;   they  do  not  ask  after  thee;   for  I  have 

'  Jer.  XXX.  5-14. 

2  The  expected  deliverer  is  spoken  of  as  David  in  other  passages.  See  Ezek.  xxxiv. 
23  ;  xxxvii.  24.  Hos.  iii.  5.  From  this,  and  similar  passages,  the  Rabbis  invented  a 
doctrine  of  a  double  Messiah— temporal  and  spiritual.  BuxtorfE,  Lex.,  p.  1273. 
Oehler,  in  Herzog,  vol.  ix.  p.  440.  But  see  Hengstenberg's  ChrisfoL,  2te  Auf.,  p.  471. 
Did  the  fancy  run  through  the  Jewish  mind,  that  David  would  return  in  person?  A 
fond  hope  of  such  a  reappearance  of  popular  heroes,  has  marked  every  age.  Bar- 
baiossa,  and  even  Napoleon,  were  eagerly  expected,  long  after  their  death,  to  come 
back  again,  and  take  their  place  as  leaders  of  the  world. 


THE   IN"VESTME]SrT   OF   JERUSALEM.  67 

struck  thee  down  with  the  blow  of  an  enemy,  with  bitter  chastisement, 
for  the  multitude  of  thy  transgressions — for  thy  sins  were  many." 

Judah  and  Jerusalem  arc  now  specially  addressed. 

"  15.  Why  criest  thou  out  for  thy  sufferings?  ^  Because  thy  pun- 
ishment is  terrible?  I  have  done  these  things  to  thee  for  the  multi- 
tude of  thy  transgressions,  for  thy  sins  were  many.  16.  (But,  because 
I  have  pity  upon  thee,)  therefore  all  that  devour  thee  shall  (themselves) 
be  devoured;  all  thy  oppressors,  every  one  of  them,  shall  go  into  cap- 
tivity; they  that  plundered  thee  shall  themselves  be  spoiled,  and  all 
who  have  robbed  thee  will  I  give  as  a  prey  (to  robbers).  17.  And  I 
will  lay  a  healing  plaster  on  thy  wound,  and  heal  thee  of  the  blows 
thou  hast  received,  saith  Jehovah,  because  they  call  thee  an  '  Outcast,' 
— 'Zion,  whom  no  man  asks  after.'  " 

Jerusalem  shall  be  in  favour  with  God,  and  shall  pros- 
per. 

"18.  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  Behold,  I  will  turn  again  the  captivity  of 
the  tents  of  Jacob,  and  have  mercy  on  his  dwelling-places,  and  Jeru- 
salem shall  be  rebuilt  on  its  own  hill,^  and  the  palace  be  inhabited  by  a 
king  in  royal  state.  ■'  19.  And  out  of  the  tents  (of  Jacob  and  the 
chambers  of  the  palace)  shall  rise  thanksgiving,  and  the  voice  of  them 
that  make  merry,  and  I  will  multiply  them,  and  they  shall  not  be 
diminished,  and  I  will  bring  them  to  honour,  and  they  shall  no  longer 
be  lightly  regarded.  20.  Their  sons  shall  flourish  as  in  times  of  old, 
and  their  community  *  be  firmly  established,  and  I  will  punish  all  that 
would  oppress  them.  21.  And  their  king  will  come  forth  from  their 
own  race,  their  ruler  from  the  midst  of  themselves;  they  will  no  more 
serve  the  foreigner:  and  I  will  bring  him  near  and  allow  him  freely  to 
approach  Me,  (a  favour  permitted  to  no  one  else).  For  who  would  risk 
his  life  by  approaching  Me?  22.  Thus  will  you  be  My  people,  and  I 
will  be  your  God." 

•  Jer.  XXX.  15-22. 

2  One  of  the  words  in  the  Hebrew  for  "hill,"  is  Tel.  It  often  forms  part  of  the 
name  of  a  city,  as  in  Telassar,  Thelassar  (2  Kings  xix.  12 ;  Isa.  xxxvii.  12),  Tel 
Haresha=Tel  Harsa,  and  Ti-l  Melah  (Ezra  ii.  59  ;  Neh.  vii.  61),  Tel  Abib  (Ezek.  iii. 
15).  Most  Eastern  cities  were  built  on  eminences,  to  protect  them  from  inundation 
and  against  the  foe. 

3  Literally,  "after  its  manner."  *  Congregation. 


68  THE  INVESTMENT  OF  JERUSALEM. 

The  wicked,  however,  will  be  consumed  in  the  flames  of 
God^s  wrath. 

"23.  Behold,  there  comes  a  tempest  from  Jehovah,  ^  a  bursting 
forth  of  wrath ;  a  sweeping  hurricane  will  whirl  round  the  heads  of  the 
wicked.  24.  The  fierce  indignation  of  Jehovah  will  not  turn  aside,  till 
He  has  finished  and  carried  out  the  thought  of  His  heart.  At  the  end 
of  (lays  ye  will  understand  this!  " 

This  storm  of  wrath  against  the  enemies  of  Israel  will  at 
once  prove  God  to  be  the  God  of  His  people,  and  will  bring 
about  the  deliverance  and  reassembling  of  all  its  twelve 
tribes  as  one  nation. 

"XXXI.  1.  At  the  same  time,  says  Jehovah,  will  I  be  the  God  of  all 
the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel,  and  they  shall  be  My  people.  3.  Thus  saith 
Jehovah,  The  remnant  of  the  nation  which  has  escaped  from  the  sword 
has  found  grace  in  the  wilderness.  Israel  is  now  coming  to  its  rest!  "^ 
3.  (It  now  says  in  its  penitence,)  '  Jehovah  appeared  from  afar — from 
2ion — unto  me.'  (Let  Me  therefore  tell  its  sons,)  I  have  indeed  loved 
thee,  Israel,  with  an  everlasting  love,  therefore  have  I  continued  My 
lovingkindness  to  thee.  4.  I  will  (further)  build  thee  (up  again),  and 
thou  shalt  remain  prosperous,^  0  Virgin  of  Israel.  Thou  shalt  again 
ornament  thy  timbrels,*  and  go  forth  in  the  dances  of  them  that  make 
merry.  5.  Thou  shalt  yet  plant  vineyards  on  the  hills  of  Samaria, 
and  they  that  plant  them  shall  gather  their  fruit.  6.  For  the  day  is 
coming  when  the  watchmen  on  the  mountains  of  Ephraim  (shall  an- 
nounce the  new  moons  that  proclaim  the  approach  of  the  great  yearly 
feasts,  and)  shall  call  out— 'Up!  let  us  go  up  to  Mount  Zion,  to  Je- 
hovah, our  Gorl ! ' 

"  7.  For  thus  saith  Jehovah:  Sing  for  gladness  about  Jacob!     Shout 

1  Jer.  XXX.  23,  24 ;  xxxi.  1-7- 

2  Ewald  refers  this  to  the  favour  shewn  Israel  after  its  escape  from  Egypt.  Others 
think  it  is  spoken  of  the  remnant  of  the  tribes  who  have  survived  the  Assyrian  cap- 
tivity. But  Babylon,  or  Assyria,  was  a  wilderness  to  the  fancy  of  the  Jew,  compared 
with  his  own  land.  The  explanations  of  the  last  clause  are  numerous.  I  have  given 
what  seems  to  me  the  best  translation. 

3  Hebrew,  "  built." 

*  Hebrew,  topA; Arabian,  dtif,  or  diff;  our  tambourine.  See  "timbrel  "  and  "tab 
ret,"  in  Concordance. 


THE   INVESTMENT   OF   JERUSALEM.  69 

(for  joy)  about  her  that  was  the  chief  of  the  nations! '  Sing  aloud,  and 
cry  to  God,  'Jehovah,  save  Thy  people!  the  remnant  of  Israel!'  8. 
(Then  will  come  His  gracious  answer:)  Behold,'^  I  will  bring  them  from 
the  land  of  the  North,  and  gather  them  from  the  farthest  sides  of  the 
earth — the  blind  and  the  lame  (as  well  as  the  strong);  the  woman  with 
child,  and  she  that  is  about  to  bring  forth,  together.  A  great  com- 
munity are  they  as  they  return!  9.  They  will  come  with  weeping  and 
with  supplications,  as  I  lead  them.  I  will  guide  them  to  streams  of 
water,  by  a  smooth  path,  on  which  they  will  not  stumble,  for  I  will  be 
a  Father  to  Israel,  and  Ephraim  shall  be  My  first-born. 

*'  10.  Hear  the  word  of  Jehovah,  0  ye  nations,  and  tell  it  to  the  far- 
thest coasts  and  islands,  and  say :  '  He  that  scattered  Israel  will  gather 
him,  and  will  guard  him  as  a  shepherd  doth  his  flock.'  11.  For  Jeho- 
vah has  redeemed  Jacob,  ^  and  ransomed  him  from  the  hand  that  was 
stronger  than  he,  12.  and  they  will  come  and  sing  on  the  height  of 
Zion,  and  stream  to  the  blessings  of  Jehovah  (which  He  shall  give  them 
in  the  fatherland) — to  the  wheat,  and  to  the  wine,  and  to  the  oil,  and  to 
the  young  sheep  and  oxen ;  and  their  soul  shall  be  as  a  garden  rich  in 
waters,  and  they  shall  not  droop  or  pine  away  any  more.  13.  Then 
shall  the  virgin  enjoy  herself  in  the  dance ;  *  young  men  and  old  will 
rejoice  together ;  and  I  will  turn  their  mourning  into  joy,  and  comfort 
them,  and  make  them  glad,  after  their  sorrow.  14.  And  I  will  satiate* 
the  priests  with  fatness,®  and  My  people  will  be  satisfied  with  My 
bounty,  saith  Jehovah." 

An  exquisite  passage  now  comes^  in  which  the  prophet  in- 
troduces the  long  dead  Eachel,  the  mother  of  Joseph,  and, 
through  him,  of  the  great  tribe  of  Ephraim,  Joseph's  son, 
on  whose  head  the  right  hand  of  the  patriarch  Jacob,  the 
father  of  the  nation,  had  been  laid,  to  mark  him,  authori- 
tatively, as  the  heir  of  Joseph's  supremacy  over  his  breth- 
ren, a  dignity  never  contested  except  by  Judah,  which  sat 
moodily  apart,  on  its  bare  hills,  in  envious  and  feeble  isola- 
tion.      She   is   seen,   far   from   her    Bethlehem   grave,  at 

»  Amos  vi.  1.    Ezek.  xix.  5.  «  Jer.  xxxi.  8-14.  »  The  Ten  Tribes. 

♦  The  maidens  danced  bj'  themselves.  *  Literally,  "water  or  refresh." 

*  The  number  of  the  finest  beasts  offered  as  sacrifices  will  be  verj'  numerous,  so 
that  the  share  of  the  priests  and  their  families— the  wave  breast  and  heave  shoulder 
(Lev.  vii.  31-34)— will  more  than  supply  them. 


70  THE  INVESTMEN'T  OF  JERUSALEM. 

Ramah,  the  lofty  hill  on  the  boundary  between  the  king- 
doms of  Judali  and  Israel,  whence  she  could  look  over  the 
now  desolate  home  of  her  northern  children,  and,  as  their 
mother,  lament  their  loss.  But  Jehovah  Himself  comforts 
her  as  she  weeps.  Let  Israel  repent  of  his  sins,  and  he  will 
surely  return. 

'*  15.  Thus  saith  Jehovah: '  A  voice  is  heard  in  Ramah,"  loud  cries  of 
sorrow  and  bitter  weeping.  Rachel  weeps  over  her  children  and  refuses 
to  be  comforted,  because  they  are  not." 

But  Jehovah  appears  to  console  and  cheer  her. 

**  16.  Thus  saith  Jehovah:  Refrain  thy  voice  from  weeping  and  thine 
eyes  from  tears ;  for  thou  shalt  still  have  a  reward  of  thy  (motherly  sor- 
row and)  care,  (thou  guide  of  the  youth  of  Joseph — thou  who  gavest 
thy  life  to  give  Benjamin  his — thou  who  didst  so  yearn  for  children); 
thy  sons  shall  come  back  again  from  the  land  of  the  enemy.  17.  There 
is  hope  for  thy  future,  saith  Jehovah  ;  thy  sons  shall  return  to  their 
own  borders  ! " 

Repentance  is  needed  on  the  part  of  Israel,  to  secure  its 
deliverance  from  captivity  ;  but  this  is  not  wanting. 

*'18.  I  have  assuredly  heard  Ephraim  lamenting  his  sins:  'Thou 
hast  chastised  me,'  said  he.  '  I  received  correction  like  an  ox  unbroken ; 
turn  me,  that  I  may  turn,  for  Thou,  Jehovah,  art  my  God.  19.  For 
after  I  had  turned  away  from  Thee  I  repented;  and  after  I  came  to 
my  right  mind  I  smote  on  my  thigh  (for  grief  at  my  sin) ;  I  blush  and 
am  ashamed  that  I  should  bear  such  reproach  (for  the  guilt)  of  my 
youth.'  " 

At  this  confession  of  sin  by  Ephraim,  the  old  love  of 
Jehovah  for  him  rekindles. 

**  20.  Is  Ephraim,  then,  (once  more)  a  dear  son  (to  Me)?  Is  he  a  son 
I  delighted  to  caress?    For,  often  as  I  spoke  against  him,  I  still  thought 

»  Jer.  xxxi.  15-20, 

'  Now  Er  Ram,  five  English  miles  north  of  Jerusalem.  It  is  on  the  top  of  a 
detached  hill  commanding  a  wide  view  to  the  north. 


THE  IN-VESTMENT   OF   JERUSALEM.  71 

of  him  fondly.     Therefore,  My  heart  sighs  for  him ;  I  will  surely  have 
mercy  on  him,  saith  Jehovah." 

Preparations  for  his  safe  return  across  the  wilderness, 
from  Assyria  to  Palestine,  are  therefore  to  be  made. 

**21.  Set  up  stones  to  mark  the  way;'  raise  built-up  stones  to  point 
it  out :  turn  thy  thoughts  to  the  road  thou  hast  to  take :  the  same  road 
by  which  thou  wast  led  (into  captivity):  return,  0  Virgin  of  Israel, 
return  to  these  thy  towns!  32.  How  long  wilt  thou  hesitate  (to  take 
the  right  way),  0  backsliding  daughter  ?  For  Jehovah  has  created  a 
new  thing  in  the  earth.  (It  is  the  part  of  a  man — the  stronger — to 
protect  and  care  for  the  woman ;  but)  thou,  the  woman  (the  bride  of 
Jehovah),  wilt  (be  allowed  to)  protect  Me  (by  protecting  My  temple, 
My  worship,  and  My  honour). "  ^ 

Judah,  also,  shall  be  restored  from  captivity. 

*«33.  Thus  saith  Jehovah  of  hosts,  the  God  of  Israel:  They  shall 
again  use  this  speech  in  the  land  of  Judah,  and  in  its  towns,  when  I 
bring  back  their  captivity:  '  Jehovah  bless  thee,  0  habitation  of  right- 
eousness; thou  holy  mount!"  24.  And  therein  will  all  Judah  dwell, 
with  all  the  population  of  its  towns;  some  as  husbandmen,  some  going 
forth  with  flocks.  35.  For  I  will  refresh  the  weary  soul,  and  satisfy 
him  that  languishes." 

The  prophet  had  seen  and  heard  all  this  while  in  a  sleep- 
like trance,*  but  the  joy  it  gave  him  broke  the  spell,  and  he 
now  awakes  and  sees  things  around,  as  one  restored  to  his 
normal  state.  No  wonder  that  he  adds,  "  My  sleep  was 
sweet  unto  me."*^  But,  ere  long,  his  thoughts  fell  back  to 
the  same  train,  and  the  happy  future  of  Judah  and  Israel, 
as  a  nation  once  more  united,  rose  in  vision  before  him. 

"27.  Behold,  the  days  come  (said  the  heavenly  Voice),  when  I  will 
sow  the  house  of  Israel,  and  the  house  of  Judah  (as  if  they  were  a  fruit- 

»  Jer.  xxxi.  21-27. 

'  See  on  this  explanation,  Keil,  JeremiaJi,  pp.  331-2.  A  great  variety  of  opinions 
may  be  read  in  Roseniniiller,  Scholia,  ad.  loc.  "  To  compass  "  =  to  cherish  and  pro- 
tect. 3  The  land  of  Judah.  *  Jer.  xxxi.  26. 


72  THE   IN'VESTMENT   OF   JERUSALEM. 

ful  field),  with  the  seed  of  man  and  with  the  seed  of  cattle.  28.  And  as 
I  have  been  wakeful  over  them,'  to  pluck  up  and  root  out,  to  destroy, 
and  consume,  and  harm,  so  will  I  be  wakeful  over  them  to  build  and 
to  plant,  saith  Jehovah." 

There  will,  then,  be  no  longer  the  disposition  to  blame 
the  sins  of  the  fathers  and  overlook  their  own,  as  the  cause 
of  all  they  have  suffered  in  exile. 

**29.  In  those  days  they  will  no  longer  say  (as  ye  do  constantly  now), 
•  The  fathers  ate  sour  grapes  and  the  teeth  of  the  sons  are  set  on  edge.'  ^ 
30.  But  every  one  shall  die  (only)  for  his  own  sins ;  every  man  who  eats 
sour  grapes,  Ids  teeth  (only)  shall  be  set  on  edge." 

A  community  thus  realizing  the  responsibility  of  its 
members  for  their  spiritual  condition  and  acts,  would 
necessarily  be  actuated  by  a  higher  motive  than  tlie  mere 
wish  to  honour  God  by  outward  service.  Grateful  for  His 
restoring  them  to  their  own  land,  obedience  to  Him  would 
be  a  willing  homage  of  love.  A  New  Covenant,  written, 
not,  like  the  former,  on  tables  of  stone,  but  on  the  ^^ fleshy 
tables  of  the  heart, "^  would,  therefore,  be  made  with  them 
by  Jehovah. 

"31.  Behold,  the  days  come,  saith  Jehovah,  when  I  shall  make  a 
new  Covenant  with  the  house  of  Israel,  and  with  the  house  of  Judah; 
82.  not  like  the  Covenant  I  made  with  their  fathers,  on  the  day  when  I 
took  them  by  the  hand,  to  lead  them  out  from  the  land  of  Egypt; 
which,  My  Covenant,  they  have  broken,  though  I  had  become  their 
husband,^  saith  Jehovah. 

"  33.  But  this  is  the  Covenant  that  I  will  make  with  the  house  of 
Israel,  after  those  days,  saith  Jehovah ;  I  will  put  *  my  law  ^  in  their 
inmost  parts,  and  write  it  on  their  hearts,  and  will  be  their  God,  and 
they   shall   be   My  people.     34.  And   they   will   no  longer  (need  to) 

*  Jer.  xxxi.  28-34.  '  Ezek.  xviii.  2.    See  page  20. 

3  The  word  in  the  Hebrew  means  to  become  their  "lord,"  or  "husband."  It  is 
used  in  the  same  sense  in  Gen.  xx.  3  ;  Dent.  xxi.  13,  xxii.  22,  xxiv.  1  ;  Isa.  Ixii.  4, 
5,  liv.  1,  5  ;  Jer.  iii.  14  ;  Mai.  ii.  11.  In  1  Chron.  iv.  22,  aiul  Isa.  xxvi.  13,  it  is  rendered 
*' to  have  dominion  over."  *  Literally,  "  give."  *  Torah. 


THE  INVESTMENT  OF  JERUSALEM. 


73 


teach  every  man  his?  neighbour,  and  every  man  his  brother,  paying, 
'  Know  Jehovah ; '  for  they  shall  all  know  Me,  from  the  least  to  the 
greatest,  saith  Jehovah ;  and  1  will  forgive  their  iniquity,  and  I  will 
remember  their  sin  no  more."  ' 

The  covenant  made  at  Sinai,  written  on  stone,  had  been 
instituted  amidst  every  circumstance  of  awe,  and  hence, 
fear,  rather  than  love,  had  been  associated  with  its  oh- 


Ancient  Sepulchres  in  the  VAiiLBT  OP  Hinnom. 


servance.  But  the  New  Covenant,  written  on  the  heart, 
would  rest  on  love  ;  and  holy  love  is,  like  the  soul,  im- 
mortal. The  moral  nature  would,  in  fact,  be  renewed,  as 
of  old  the  Avorld  had  been  from  chaos,  and  the  laws  of  the 
new  spiritual  creation  would  prove  as  permanent  and  un- 
changing as  those  of  the  material  universe. 

>  Gratitude  for  sin  forf,'iven  will  lead  them  to  seek  to  know  Jehovah,  and  will  keep 
them  faithful  to  Him. 


74  THE   IN"VESTMEN^T   OF   JERUSALEM. 

**35.  Thus  saith  Jehovah,'  who  appointed  the  sun  for  light  by  day; 
the  ordinances  of  the  moon  and  stars  for  light  by  night;  who  throws  the 
sea  into  a  commotion  so  that  its  waves  roar;  Jehovah  of  Hosts  is  His 
name :  36.  If  these  ordinances  fail  from  before  Me,  saith  Jehovah,  so 
also  will  the  seed  of  Israel  cease  to  be  a  nation,  before  Me,  for  ever! 
37.  Thus  saith  Jehovah:  If  heaven  above  can  be  measured,  and  the 
foundations  of  the  earth,  beneath,  be  searched  out,  I  will  also  reject 
all  the  seed  of  Israel,  for  all  that  they  have  done,  saith  Jehovah." 

Jerusalem  would  be  rebuilt  and  flourish  in  those  days. 

*'38.  Behold,  the  days  come,  saith  Jehovah,  that  the  city  (Jerusa- 
lem) will  be  rebuilt  for  Jehovah,  from  the  Tower  of  HananeeP  to  the 
gate  of  the  corner.'  39.  And  the  measuring  line  will  go  still  farther, 
straight  forward  to  the  hill  Gareb,*  and  bend  towards  Goath.*  40. 
And  the  whole  of  (Hinnom,)  the  valley  of  corpses  *  and  ashes,'  (defiled, 
now,  as  the  scene  of  the  horrors  of  Moloch  worship,*)  and  all  the  space 
east  to  the  Valley  of  Kidron,  to  the  corner  where  the  Horse  Gate  is, 
towards  the  east,  will  be  holy  to  Jehovah,  and  shall  no  more  be  rooted 
up  or  destroyed  for  ever!  " 

»  Jer.  xxxi.  35-40. 

»  At  the  north-east  of  the  city  wall.    Neh.  iii.  1.    Zech.  xiv.  10. 
3  At  the  north-west  corner  of  the  town  ;  north  or  north-west  of  the  present  Jaffa 
Gate.    2  Kings  xiv.  13.    2  Chron.  xxvi.  9.    Zech.  xiv.  10. 

*  Gareb  =  the  place  of  the  lepers.    An  unknown  height  on  the  west  of  the  city. 

'  An  unknown  spot  on  the  south-west  of  the  city.  The  restored  Jerusalem  would 
include  spaces  lying  outside  the  old  city.  Goath  is  called  in  the  Talmud  "  The 
heifer's  pool.'' 

•  Carcasses  of  criminals  and  of  animals  were  thrown  out  in  the  Valley  of  Hinnom. 
Contrary  to  the  universally  received  view,  this  valley  must,  in  Dr.  Sayce's  opinion, 
have  been  the  one  known  in  the  time  of  Josephus  as  the  Tyropoeon,  or  Cheesemakers' 
Valley.  It  divided  the  Temple  Hill  and  the  southern  hill  from  the  hills  on  the  west, 
though  it  is  now  filled  up  with  the  rubbish  which  the  numerous  destroyers  of  Jerusa- 
lem have  thrown  into  it.  In  some  places  this  is  more  than  seventy  feet  deep,  and 
under  it,  if  anywhere,  we  must  look  for  the  tombs  of  the  kings,  that  were  cut  in  the 
rocky  cliff  of  the  City  of  David.  Here,  too,  if  anywhere,  will  be  found  the  relics  of 
the  Temple  and  Palace,  that  Nebuchadnezzar  destroyed.  The  surface  is  now  covered 
with  crowded  and  wretched  houses,  so  that  excavation  on  any  large  scale  is  impos- 
sible. Dr.  Sayce's  opinion  that  this  part  was  over  the  Valley  of  Hinnom  is  as  start- 
ling as  it  is  novel.    See  his  remarks,  Records  of  the  Past,  N.  S,,  vol.  i.  174. 

'  Part  of  the  valley  was  set  apart  for  the  mingled  ashes  and  fat  of  the  sacrifices,  to 
consume  which  an  "  unquenchable  fire  "  was  kept  always  burning. 
8  3  Kings  xxiii.  10. 


CHAPTER    V. 

DURIITG    THE    SIEGE. 

Jeremiah  was  fortunate  enough  to  preserve  his  liberty 
for  some  time  after  the  siege  had  begun,  but  it  was  in 
danger  from  day  to  day.  Nebuchadnezzar's  army,  includ- 
ing, besides  Chaldaeans,  contingents  from  every  land 
subject  to  him,*  had  full  possession  of  the  country  outside 
the  gates  of  Jerusalem,  and  were  besieging  not  only  Jerusa- 
lem, but  also,  at  the  same  time,  Lachish  and  Azekah,  for- 
tified towns  belonging  to  Judah,  on  the  Philistine  plain.* 
The  stubborn  tenacity  of  the  capital,  however,  remained 
unbroken,  and  its  hope  that  Egypt  would  send  a  force  to 
relieve  it  was  unshaken.  Amidst  such  excitement,  to  run 
counter  to  the  popular  feeling  was  dangerous  in  the  ex- 
treme, and  would  have  been  made  an  excuse  for  silence  by 
ordinary  men.  But  Jeremiah  knew  that  resistance  was 
vain,  and  lost  no  opportunity  of  proclaiming  this,  even  to 
the  king  in  person.  Zedekiah  had  already  consulted  him, 
as  we  have  seen,  as  to  the  future  ;  but  this  did  not  content 
the  prophet.  Seizing  opportunities  of  meeting  him,  either 
by  penetrating  to  his  chambers  in  the  palace,  or  when  he 
came  abroad,  Jeremiah  sought,  again  and  again,  to  warn 
him  of  the  madness  of  further  resistance. 

^'  Thus  saith  Jehovah,^'  said  he,  on  one  occasion  when  he 
had  made  his  way  into  the  royal  presence : 

»  Jer.  xxxiv.  1.  «  Jer.  xxxiv.  1,  7. 


76 


DURING   THE   SIEGE. 


"XXXIV.  2.  Behold/  I  will  give  this  city  into  the  hand  of  the  king 
of  Babylon,  and  he  will  burn  it  witli  fire.  3.  And  thou  shalt  not 
escape  out  of  his  hand ;  but  shalt  surely  be  taken,  and  delivered  into 
his  hand ;  and  thine  eyes  shall  see  the  eyes  of  the  king  of  Babylon  and 
thy  mouth  will  speak  with  his  mouth,  and  thou  shalt  go  to  Babylon. - 

4.  Yet,  hear  the  word  of  Jehovah,  0  Zedekiah,  thou  king  of  Judah. 
Thus  says  Jehovah  respecting  thee,  Thou  shalt  not  die  by  the  sword. 

5.  Thou  shalt  die  in  peace,  and  they  will  burn  spices  (at  thy  burial),^  as 
they  did  at  the  burial  of  thy  fathers,  and  they  will  raise  (over  thee)  the 
(usual)  lament,  '  Ah,  Lord  ! ' — for  I  have  spoken  the  word,  says  Jeho- 
vah." 


One  of  the  forms  of  oppression  against  which  Jeremiah 
and  other  prophets  constantly  declaimed,  was  the  retention 

of  free-born  He- 
brews of  both 
sexes,  in  slavery, 
contrary  to  the 
law.  It  was  il- 
legal to  hold 
any  one  as  a 
household  slave 
for  more  than 
six  years,  though  field  slaves,  under  special  circumstances, 
might  be  kept  as  such  till  the  year  of  Jubilee.*  Both 
classes,  however,  were  to  be  treated  as  kindly  as  if  they  were 
hired  servants.^  But  the  rich  men  of  Jerusalem  ignored 
these  provisions  of  the  law,  and  held  numbers  of  household 


Assyrian  Pitneral  Urns  for  the  Ashes  of  the  Dead. 
From  Gosse's  AssyHa. 


'  Jer.  xxxiv.  2-5.  ^  Jer.  lii.  11  ;  xxxii.  4.    Ezek.  xii.  13. 

■^  It  was  usual  with  other  nations  to  burn  aromatic  perfumes  at  the  burial  or  burn- 
ing of  great  persons.  Pliny,  Hist.  Nat.,  xii.  18.  The  Assyrians  seem  to  have  in  some 
cases  burned  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  but  the  Hebrews  laid  them  in  tombs  ;  the  roclcy 
surface  of  the  country,  except  in  the  plain  of  Esdraelon,  and  a  few  other  spots,  mak- 
ing it  impossible  to  dig  gravt^s.  The  custom  over  all  Mesopotamia  was  to  bring  the 
dead,  from  far  and  near,  to  Cutha  or  Erech,  the  present  Warka,  in  Southern  Babylo- 
nia. Warka  is,  indeed,  still  the  dismal  goal  of  constant  caravans  of  corpses,  even 
from  immense  distances.  *  Exod.  xxi.  2.    Deut.  xv.  18.  ^  Lev.  xxv. : 


DURIN^G  THE  SIEGE.  77 

servants  in  perpetual  slavery.  The  imminent  danger  of 
the  city  now,  however,  for  the  moment,  roused  the  con- 
science of  the  king  in  favour  of  these  helpless  victims. 
Jeremiah's  words  had  sunk  into  his  heart,  and  he  resolved 
to  take  one  step,  at  least,  in  the  right  direction,  by  setting 
all  the  Hebrew  slaves  in  Jerusalem  free,  apparently  without 
regard  to  the  length  of  time  they  had  served.  The  need  of 
all  possible  help  in  the  defence  may,  perhaps,  have  been,  in 
part,  a  consideration,  and  also,  the  prudent  wish  to  avert 
disaffection  among  the  oppressed,  when  hearty  union  was 
so  imperative.  Amidst  the  terrors  of  the  siege,  therefore, 
a  great  assembly  of  the  citizens  was  held  in  the  temple,^ 
and  acquiescence  in  a  decree  of  emancipation  wrung  from 
all  slaveholders  ;  their  formal  assent  to  this  reform  being 
solemnly  confirmed  by  a  covenant  ratified  by  the  usual  sac- 
rifices.'' The  decree  of  enfranchisement  was  then  published, 
and,  even  amidst  the  perils  of  the  hour,  the  great  act  of 
justice  spread  a  momentary  gladness  through  all  bosoms.' 

But  reforms  carried  in  a  paroxysm  of  excitement  are  apt 
to  be  short-lived.  News  reached  the  Chaldaeans,  very  soon 
after,  that  an  Egyptian  army,  destined  for  the  relief  of 
Jerusalem,  had  invaded  the  south  of  Palestine,*  thus  creat- 
ing a  danger  to  the  besiegers  which  forced  them  to  abandon 
the  investment  of  the  city  for  a  time,  and  march  against 
the  new  foe.  To  lead  a  large  force  down  the  steep  and 
narrow  defiles,  from  the  table-land  to  the  coast  plains,  was 
no  easy  matter,  however,  and  secured  for  the  capital  a 
respite  of  at  least  two  or  three  months.  Roads  fit  for  the 
passage  of  an  army,  or,  indeed,  for  any  travelling  except  on 
foot  or  horseback,  and  this,  only  slowly  and  painfully,  are 
even  yet  unknown  in  Palestine.     If  the  Chaldaeans  marched 

t  Jer.  xxxiv.  15.         *  Jer.  xxxiv.  18.         »  Jer.  xxxiv.  8-10.  *  Jer.  xzxvii.  5. 


78  DUEING   THE   SIEGE. 

south  from  Jerusalem  to  Hebron,  as  their  first  stage,  and 
then  descended  to  the  plains,  their  most  direct  route,  I  can 
vouch,  from  my  own  experience,  that  their  progress  must 
have  been  indescribably  difficult.  There  is  only  a  narrow 
path  most  of  the  way,  and  that  winds,  hither  and  thither, 
among  loose  stones,  often  on  the  side  of  steep  hills.  To  an 
army,  encumbered  with  its  long  trains  of  wagons,  military 
engines,  and  multitudinous  requirements  for  man  and 
beast,  the  march  must  have  been  a  very  great  undertaking. 
Hopes  forthwith  ran  high  among  the  citizens,  that  the  dis- 
appearance of  their  assailants  was  final ;  the  victory  of 
Pharaoh  Hophra  being  confidently  assumed.  But  he  was 
soon  driven  back  to  Egypt ;  if,  indeed,  as  some  accounts 
say,  he  did  not  retire  at  once,  without  fighting,  on  the  ap- 
proach of  the  Chaldaians. 

The  interval  of  fancied  security  was  ruinous  to  Jerusa- 
lem. The  slaves  so  lately  set  at  liberty  were  once  more 
seized,  and  deprived  of  their  brief  freedom.*  Violence 
reigned  as  cruelly  as  in  the  worst  days  of  the  past.  The 
wildest  agitation  prevailed.  Even  a  semblance  of  order 
could  only  be  maintained  by  the  clubs  and  spears  of  the 
retainers  of  the  slave-holding  sheiks.  Jerusalem  was  rent 
by  the  bitterest  of  all  feuds,  the  struggle  of  a  despairing 
proletariat  for  its  personal  liberty.  Amidst  this  fierce  up- 
roar and  commotion,  the  voice  of  Jeremiah,  fearless,  as 
always,  in  defence  of  the  rights  of  the  poor  against  the 
injustice  of  the  rich  and  privileged  classes,  was  heard  de- 
nouncing the  oppressor,  and  sympathizing  with  the  down- 
trodden. 

*'  XXXIV.  13.  Thus  saith  Jehovah, 2  the  God  of  Israel,— cried  the 
noble  tribune  of  the  people, — I  made  a  Covenant  with  your  fathers  in 

1  Jer.  xxxiv.  11.  »  Jer.  xxxiv.  13. 


DURING    THE    SIEGE.  79 

the  day  that  I  brought  them  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  from  the 
House  of  Slaves,  saying :  14.  At  the  end  of  seven  years,  *  ye  shall  set 
free,  every  man,  his  brother  Hebrew,  who  has  sold  himself  to  thee;  he 
shall  serve  thee  six  years,  and  then  thou  shalt  let  him  go  free.  But 
your  fathers  hearkened  not  to  Me,  neither  inclined  their  ear.  15.  Ye, 
however,  changing  this  recently,  did  what  was  right  in  My  sight ;  pro- 
claiming liberty,  every  man,  to  his  neighbour;  and  made  a  Covenant 
(to  this  effect)  before  Me,  in  the  House  which  is  called  by  My  name. 
16.  But  ye  have  now  changed  (again),  and  have  polluted  My  name, 
and  have  taken  back,  every  one,  his  man  slave,  and,  every  one,  his 
woman  slave,  whom  he  had  set  free  of  his  own  will,  and  have  forced 
them  once  more  into  bondage. 

"  17.  Therefore,  thus  saith  Jehovah,  since  ye  have  not  hearkened 
to  Me,  by  keeping  true  to  your  proclamation  of  liberty  to  your  brothers 
and  neighbours ;  behold,  I  now  proclaim  liberty  for  you,  saith  Jehovah ; 
(liberty)  to  the  sword,  the  pestilence,  and  the  famine  (to  ravage  you); 
and  I  give  you  up  to  be  a  shuddering  to  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth ! 
18.  And  I  will  give  the  men  who  have  broken  My  Covenant  made  of 
old,  and  have  not  kept  this  (present)  one,  which  (but  as  yesterday) 
they  swore  before  Me ;  cutting  a  calf  in  two,  and  passing  between  the 
halves,'^  (to  confirm  their  oath:  I  will  give  them),  19.  the  princes  of 
Judah  and  of  Jerusalem,  the  eunuchs  and  the  priests,  and  all  the 
people  of  the  land,  20.  into  the  hand  of  their  enemies,  and  into  the 
hand  of  those  who  seek  their  life,  and  their  dead  bodies  shall  be  meat 
for  the  fowls  of  the  heaven  and  for  the  beasts  of  the  earth.  21.  And 
Zedekiah,  the  king  of  Judah,  and  his  princes,  will  I  give  into  the  hand 
of  their  enemies,  that  seek  their  life,  and  into  the  hand  of  the  army  of 
the  king  of  Babylon,  which  has  (for  the  time)  withdrawn  from  Jerusa- 
lem. 22.  Behold,  I  will  command,  saith  Jehovah,  and  bring  them 
back  to  this  city,  to  fight  against  it,  and  take  it,  and  burn  it  with 
fire;  and  I  will  make  the  towns  of  Judah  a  desolation,  without  an 
inhabitant ! " 

The  relief  enjoyed  by  the  temporary  retirement  of  the 
Chaldaeans  from  the  siege,  however  misleading  to  others 

J  At  the  end  of  six  years.  The  first  and  last  dates  were  both  reckoned  by  the 
Hebrews.  Thus  the  Jubilee  was,  strictly  speaking,  the  49th  year,  not  the  50th.  So 
also  Circumcision,  which  was  said  to  be  on  the  eighth  day,  was,  by  our  way  of  reck- 
oning, on  the  seventh  ;  and  our  Lord's  Resurrection,  which  by  the  Jewish  counting 
was  to  take  place  on  the  third  day,  was  by  ours  to  be  on  the  second.  Jer. 
:iv.  14-22.  «  Gen.  xv.  10. 


80  DURIKG   THE   SIEGE. 

as  to  the  final  issue  of  the  struggle^  did  not  for  a  moment 
change  the  fixed  convictions  of  Jeremiah.  He  knew  that 
Egypt  would  be  defeated  and  ultimately  crushed  by  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, and  this  he  sought  to  get  his  fellow-citizens  to 
believe,  that  they  might  save  at  least  their  lives  and  the 
city,  by  timely  submission  to  the  Chaldeans. 

The  word  of  Jehovah,  he  announced,  had  come  to  him, 
saying : 

"XL VI.  14.  Declare  ye  in  Egypt,  publish  it  in  Migdol,*  make  it 
known  in  Noph  and  Tahpanhes!  ^  Say:  Stand  forth  and  prepare  thy- 
self, for  the  sword  has  devoured  (the  nations)  round  about  you.  15. 
Why  is  (god)  Apis,  thy  Mighty  One,  overthrown  ?  ^    He  could  not  stand, 

>  Jer.  xlvi.  14-15. 

'  Migdol,  or  Magdolon  (a  military  "  watch  tower  "),  was  twelve  miles  from  Pelu- 
sium,  or  Avaris,  the  north-east  frontier  town  of  Egypt.  It  lay  S.W.  from  Avaris  on 
the  only  road.  Tahpanhes  (see  vol.  v.  p.  138)  lay  eight  or  ten  miles  farther  to  the 
S.E.  on  the  same  road.  Noph,  contracted  from  Meuopli,  is  Memphis,  the  ancient 
capital  of  Lower  Egypt.  Its  ruins  lie  south  of  the  present  CJairo,  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  Nile.  The  site  of  Noph  or  Memphis  shews,  now,  liardly  a  trace  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  great  city  on  it  in  former  ages.  Indeed,  a  broken  statue  of  one  of  the 
Pharaohs,  lying  on  its  face,  in  a  hollow  which  is  filled  with  water  when  the  Nile 
overflows,  is  almost  the  only  visible  sign  of  the  ancient  grandeur  of  the  spot.  The 
desert  sands,  however,  reaching  away  interminably  from  it,  cover  wondrous 
memorials  of  it.  Tombs  of  amazing  elaborateness,  once  rising  from  the  rocky 
plateau,  but  long  since  buried  under  the  drifting  desolation,  are  being  constantly 
disclosed,  far  and  near,  while  the  rock  itself  has  been  hollowed  into  mummy  pits 
for  nearly  forty  miles  ;  each  huge  pit  filled  with  the  dead.  The  wonderful  tombs  in 
which  the  sacred  bulls  lie,  in  almost  inconceivably  grand  sarcophagi,  run  in  a  long 
range  underground,  each  having  a  spacious  chamber  to  itself  and  reposing  in  marble 
or  porphyry,  nobler  than  the  hist  homes  of  kings.  The  desert,  moreover,  is  covered, 
mile  after  mile,  with  bits  of  potterj',  in  quantities  that  must  be  seen  to  be  realized. 
See  vol.  ii.  p.  15.     See  also  Brugsch's  Map. 

3.Theadjective  translated  in  the  A. V.  '-valiant"  is  plural,  but  the  verb  and  the  pro- 
nouns in  the  clause  are  singular.  It  has  hence  been  thought  that  the  adjective,  also, 
should  be  singular  ;  the  only  change  needed  to  make  it  so  being  the  omission  of  the  let- 
ter Yod,  the  smallest  in  the  Hebrew  alphabet,  which  may  have  been  inserted  by  a  cop}'. 
ist  to  suit  the  plural  verb,  etc.  The  Septuagint,  treating  it  as  singular,  refers  it  to 
the  sacred  ox  Khaph— Apis  or  Hapi— the  supreme  god  of  Memj)his,  translating  the 
phrase,  "  Why  has  Apis,  thy  chosen  one,  fled  ?  "  But  other  towns  besides  Memphis 
are  named,  and  Apis  was  worshipped  in  Memphis  alone.  He  was  indeed  "The 
Mighty  One  "  of  that  city  ;  just  as  Jehovah  was  "  The  Mighty  One  of  Israel."  The 
plural  of  the  adjective, it  may  be  added,  is  used  of  strong  oxen,  but  the  singular  never 
Btands  for  an  ox.    On  the  whole,  the  singular  seems  likely  to  be  correct,  and  may  be 


DURING   THE   SIEGE.  81 

for  Jehorah  has  cast  hira  down.  16.  ITe  causes  many  to  fall;'  yea, 
one  attacks  the  other;  (the  bands  of  the  mercenary  troops)  say:  *  Up  I 
let  us  return  to  our  own  people,  to  the  land  of  our  birth,  from  the 
exterminating  sword.'  17.  They  say,  *  Pharaoh,"  the  king  of  P^gypt,  is  a 
lost  man ;  he  has  let  his  chance  pass ! '  18.  As  I  live,  says  the  King,  whose 
name  is  Jehovah  of  Hosts:  Verily,  as  a  Tabor  among  the  mountains 
and  a  Carmel  on  the  sea,  will  the  (invading  destroyer)  come.'  19. 
Make  ready  what  thou  needest  on  the  way,  in  preparation  for  being  car- 
ried  off  captive,  thou  native-born  daughter*  of  Egypt;  for  Noph  shall 
be  waste  and  desolate,  without  an  inhabitant. 

*'20.  Egypt  is  like  a  wondrously  fair  heifer,  but  a  deadly  gadfly* 
comes  out  of  the  north  (to  destroy  her)!  31.  Pier  (foreign)  hired  troops 
also,  in  her  midst,  (men)  like  fatted  bullocks,  even  they  turn  their  backs 
and  flee  together,  and  will  not  face  the  foe;  for  the  day  of  their 
destruction  has  come  on  them;  the  time  of  their  punishment.  22. 
The  voice  of  Egypt,  (bowed  and  humbled  to  the  dust,)  is  like  the  rustle 
of  a  serpent  (gliding  off  in  alarm  through  the  fallen  leaves  of  a  wood); 
for  her  (enemies)  march  against  her  in  strength,  and  come  with  axes 
against  her,  like  men  that  hew  down  trees;  23.  and  they  will  hew 
down  her  forest,*  saith  Jehovah,  for  their  number  is  countless;  they 
are  more  than  the  locusts,  they  are  innumerable.  24.  The  daughter 
of  P^gypt  is  put  to  shame,  she  is  given  into  the  hand  of  the  people  of 
the  North.  25.  Thus  saith  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  the  God  of  Israel:  Be- 
liold.  I  will  visit  Amon,  the  god  of  No — (that  is,  Thebes^) — and 
Pharaoh,  and  Egypt;  its  gods  and  its  kings;  the  Pharaoh  and  those 
who  trust  in  him  ;  26.  and  I  will  give  them  into  the  hand  of  their 
deadly  foe,  into  the  hand  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  king  of  Babylon, 
and  into  the  hand  of  his  servants.  Yet,  alterwards,  it  will  flourish* 
as  in  the  days  of  old,  saith  Jehovah. 

**27.  But  fear  not  thou,  0  my  servant  Jacob,  and  be  not  dismayed, 

applied  either  to  the  king  of  Egypt  or  to  the  god  Apis,  as  is  thought  bes't  by  the 
reader.    Ewald  translates  the  passage  "■  Thy  Ox  is  carried  oflE." 

1  Jer.  xlvi.  16-27. 

'^  The  Septuagint,  Syriac,  and  Vulgate,  by  the  change  of  the  vowel  in  the  Hebrew, 
read  "  the  name  of  "  for  *'  these." 

9  His  awful  might  will  rise  high  over  that  of  all  around  him,  as  Tabor  and  Carmel 
above  the  landscape  at  their  feet.  Tabor  is  1,805  feet  above  the  sea  level,  1,350  feet 
above  the  plain  below.  Carmel  sinks  into  the  Mediterranean  in  a  steep  cliff  more 
than  500  feet  in  height.     Robinson.  «  LiteraJly.  '•  daughter." 

*  Miiiilau  und  Volck.  Gesenius,  Supp.  to  Tlies.,  p.  111.  Ewald  translates  it  "a 
monster."    Graf  and  others,  as  in  the  text. 

•  Jer.  xxi.  14.     Isa.  x.  18,  33.  '  See  vol.  ii.  p.  la. 
"  Literally,  "  be  inhabited." 

VOL.  VI.-6 


82  DURING   THE   SIEGE. 

0  Israel !  For,  behold,  I  will  deliver  thee  from  the  far-off  land,  and 
thy  seed  from  the  land  of  its  captivity,  and  Jacob  shall  return,  and  be 
at  rest  and  secure,  no  one  disturbing  him.  28.  Fear  not  thou,'  O 
Jacob,  My  servant,  says  Jehovah;  for  I  am  with  thee;  for  I  will  make 
an  utter  end  of  all  the  nations  whither  I  have  driven  thee,  but  I  will 
not  make  an  utter  end  of  thee,  but  only  chasten  thee  according  to 
right,  and  not  leave  thee  unpunished." 

Intercourse  between  Jerusalem  and  the  exiles  on  the 
Chebar  was  still  swift  and  constant  in  these  years,  and 
false  hopes  of  the  triumph  of  Egypt,  cherished  among 
them  as  much  as  in  Palestine,  needed  no  less  to  be  dis- 
couraged. Hence,  on  the  twelfth  day  of  Tebet,^  nearly  our 
January,  in  the  year  588,  Ezekiel  addressed  his  fellow- 
captives  in  words  very  similar  to  those  of  Jeremiah  in  the 
far-off  capital. 

"XXIX.  1.  The  word  of  Jehovah  has  come  to  me,'  (cried  he), 
saying:  2.  Set  thy  face  against  Pharaoh,  the  king  of  Egypt,  and 
prophesy  against  him,  and  against  all  Egypt.  3.  Speak,  and  say: 
Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  Behold,  I  come  against  thee,  0  Pharaoh, 
king  of  Egypt,  thou  great  crocodile,  lying  in  the  midst  of  the  canals 
(of  the  Nile),  who  hast  said,  '  My  Nile  stream  is  my  own ;  I  made  it 
(what  it  is)  for  myself,  (by  canals,  dams,  sluices,  and  reservoirs).'* 
4.  But  I  will  put  a  ring  in  thy  jaws,  and  will  make  the  fish  of  thy 
streams — (that  is,  the  people  of  thy  land) — cleave  to  thy  scales,  and 

1  will  drag  thee  up  out  of  the  midst  of  thy  canals,  and  all  the  fish 
in  them  will  stick  to  thy  scales.  5.  And  I  will  throw  thee  out  into  the 
desert,  thee  and  all  the  fish  of  thy  canals ;  thou  wilt  fall  on  the  open 
ground ;  thou  shalt  not  be  lifted  up  nor  buried ;  for  I  give  thee  for 
meat  to  tlie  beasts  of  the  earth  and  the  fowls  of  heaven.  6.  And  all 
the  inhabitants  of  Egypt  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah,  because  thou 
hast  been  a  staff  of  (brittle)  reed  to  the  house  of  Israel.     7.  When  its 

»  Jer.  xlvi.  28.  ^  Literally,  in  the  lOth  moon  ;  the  12th  day  of  the  moon. 

•  Ezek.  xxix.  1-7. 

■»  At  one  part  on  the  Nile,  I  saw  a  great  crowd  digging  out  a  broad  canal  ivith  their 
hands :  the  sand,  or  Nile  mud,  being  carried  off  on  their  heads,  in  small  baskets. 
Nothing  better  can  be  supposed  of  the  ancient  system  of  making  such  "  canals,"  etc. 
The  huge  Mahmoudieh  canal  was  dug  thus,  in  the  days  of  Mehemet  Ali.  How  many 
thousands  have  died  during  these  strange  engineering  operations,  first  and  last,  who 
can  tell  ? 


DUKII^G   THE   SIEGE.  83 

Bons  took  hold  of  tlioc  with  the  hand  thou  didst  snap  across,  and  tear 
their  whole  shoulder;  when  they  leaned  on  thee  thou  didst  break,  so 
that  their  whole  body  shook. 

*'  8.  Therefore,  thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  ^  Behold,  I  bring  on  thee, 
(0  Egypt),  the  sword,  and  destroy  from  thee  man  and  beast.  9.  And 
the  land  of  Egypt  will  be  waste  and  desert,  and  they  shall  know  that  I 
am  Jehovah. 

"Because  Pharaoh  has  said,  *  The  Nile  stream  is  mine,  and  T  have 
made  it,'  10.  behold,  for  this,  I  am  against  thee,  and  against  thy 
canals,  and  I  will  make  the  land  of  Egypt  utterly  waste  and  desert, 
from  j\[igdol  (on  the  farthest  north-east),  to  Syene  (on  the  farthest 
south),  that  is,  to  the  borders  of  Ethiopia.  11.  No  foot  of  man  or  of 
cattle  will  pass  through  it,  nor  will  it  be  inhabited  for  forty  years. 

13.  And  I  will  make  the  land  of  Egypt  a  desolation  above  all  deso- 
late lands,  and  her  towns  will  be  a  desolation  above  all  desolate  towns 
for  forty  years ;  and  I  will  scatter  the  Egyptians  among  the  nations, 
and  dispei-se  them  through  the  lands. 

*'  13.  Yet,  thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  At  the  end  of  forty  years  I 
will  gather  the  Egyptians  from  the  peoples  whither  they  were  scattered. 

14.  And  I  will  bring  back  the  captives  of  Egypt,  and  will  restore  them 
to  the  land  of  Pathros,'  the  land  of  their  birth,  and  there  they  shall  be 
a  weak  kingdom.  15.  It  will  be  the  weakest  of  kingdoms,  nor  will  it 
exalt  itself  any  more  above  the  nations ;  for  I  will  make  them  weak, 
that  they  may  no  more  rule  over  the  nations.  16.  And  Egypt  will  no 
longer  be  the  trust  of  the  house  of  Israel,  bringing  their  sin  in  remem- 
brance (before  God),  by  their  thus  turning  (away  from  Him)  to  look  to 
them.     And  they  shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord  Jehovah." 

Three  months  later/  when  the  siege  of  Jenisalem  was 
near  the  end  of  its  fifteenth  month/  perhaps  after  the 
receipt,  from  Palestine,  of  news  that  Pharaoh^s  attempted 
relief  had  been  defeated,  Ezekiel  once  more  addressed  the 
exiles  on  the  engrossing  subject  of  the  prospects  of  future 
help  to  Judah  from  the  Nile.  The  word  of  Jehovah,  he 
tells  us,  came  to  him,  saying  : 

'  Ezek.  xxix.  8-16. 

»  Egypt.  Petores  =  South-country,  Upper  Egypt ;  the  Thebais  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans.  3  Ezek.  xxx.  20. 

*  See  date  in  Ezek.  xxiv.  1,  2  ;  comp.  with  that  in  Ezek.  xxx.  20. 


84  nUEING    THE    SIEGE. 

*'  XXX.  21.  Son  of  man !  1  have  broken  the  arm  of  Pharaoh,  king  of 
Egypt,  and,  lo,  it  lias  not  yet  been  set,*  so  that  salves  might  be  applied 
to  it,  or  a  bandage  wrapped  round  it,  to  make  it  strong  to  hold  the 
sword  (again).  23.  Therefore,  thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah :  Behold,  I 
will  come  to  Pharaoli,  the  king  of  Egypt,  and  break  (botli)  his  arms — 
the  strong  one  and  that  which  has  already  been  broken — and  will  cause 
the  sword  to  fall  out  of  his  hand.  23.  And  I  will  scatter  the  Egyptians 
among  the  nations,  and  disperse  them  through  the  countries.  ^  24. 
And  I  will  strengthen  the  arms  of  the  king  of  Babylon,  and  put  My 
sword  into  his  hand,  and  will  break  the  arms  of  Pharaoh,  so  that  he 
shall  groan  before  him  like  a  deadly  wounded  man.  25.  I  will 
strengthen  the  arms  of  the  king  of  Babylon,  and  the  arms  of  Pharaoh 
shall  fall  down ;  and  they  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah,  when  I  give 
My  sword  into  the  liand  of  the  king  of  Babylon,  that  he  may  stretch 
it  out  against  the  land  of  Egypt.  26.  And  I  will  scatter  the  Egyptians 
among  the  nations,  and  disperse  them  through  the  countries ;  and  they 
shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah." 

The  excitement  in  Babylonia  as  the  siege  of  Jerusalem 
drew  near  its  termination,  must  have  been  intense,  and 
the  increasing  certainty  that  it  would  result  in  the  utter 
destruction  of  the  Jewish  State,  as  the  prophets  had 
foretold,  must  have  intensified  the  public  feeling  against 
Egypt,  as  the  temptress  that  had  led  it  to  its  ruin.  It  is 
not,  therefore,  matter  of  surprise  that  Ezekiel  turned 
again  to  tlie  subject,^  in  the  very  last  days  of  the  Holy 
City,  and  denounced  the  Pharaoli  afresh.  Most  of  this 
utterance,  however,  has  already  been  given,*  and  need  not 
be  repeated,.  The  glory  of  Assyria  had  been  like  that  of 
the  grandest  cedar  of  Lebanon,  exciting  the  envy  of  all 
the  trees,  even  of  Eden.  Yet  it  had  fallen.  Egypt,  there- 
fore, which  had  no  sucli  lordliness  of  which  to  boast,  could 
not  hope  to  escape  God's   judgments.     The  Pharaoh  also 

3  Literally,  "bound."    Ezek.  xxx.  21-26. 

2  This  was  done  to  the  vast  crowds  of  prisoners  taken  by  Nebuchadnezzar, 

3  Ezek.  xxxi.  1-18.  ■*  See  vol.  v.  p.  394. 


DURING   THE   SIEGE.  85 

would  be  cast  down  beside  the  felled  trees  of  Eden — the 
great  ones  of  Assyria — in  the  Underworld ;  for  Nineveh 
had  been  taken  and  destroyed,  for  now  nearly  twenty 
years  ;  he  would  lie  in  the  midst  of  the  uncircumcised — 
that  is,  the  godless  heathen — who  had  been  slain  with  the 
sword.  This,  adds  Ezekiel,  is  the  fate  of  Pharaoh  and  all 
his  multitude  :  so  says  the  Lord  Jehovah. 

The  temporary  raising  of  the  siege  had  filled  the  citi- 
zens with  hopes  of  ultimate  deliverance,  for  men  cling  to 
their  cherished  dreams  in  the  face  of  every  improbability. 
The  storm,  it  was  fondly  dreamed,  had  passed  ever,  and 
the  predictions  of  Jeremiah  would  remain  unfulfilled. 
Even  a  dull  and  imperfect  religious  feeling  revived.  Je- 
hovah, the  national  God,  must  be  consulted.  His  prophet 
must  bo  asked  to  intercede  with  Him  for  the  city.  He 
would  perhaps  hear  so  faithful  a  servant.  Two  dignita- 
ries, therefore,  Jehucal  or  Jucal/  apparently  one  of  the 
''princes  "  of  Judah,  but  a  bitter  enemy  of  Jeremiah,  even 
to  the  length  of  wishing  to  kill  him,'  and  Zephaniah,  the 
Sagan,  or  second  priest,  who,  as  commandant  of  the  tem- 
ple, had  been  appealed  to  from  Babylon  to  punish  the 
prophet,^  and  had  once  before  been  sent  to  him  by  Zede- 
kiah,*  waited  on  the  seer,  as  a  new  deputation  from  the 
palace,  to  ask  him,  in  the  name  of  the  king,  to  pray  for 
liis  fellow-citizens. 

But,  as  might  have  been  anticipated,  the  mission  was 
a  failure.  Intercession  with  God  was  not  to  be  bought 
either  by  threats  or  cajoling.  Humble  repentance,  on  the 
part  of  the  king  and  his  people,  alone  could  secure  it,  and 
this  was  wanting.     Incorruptible  amidst  a  degenerate  com- 

>  Jer.  xxxviii.  1,  •  Jer.  xxxviii.  4. 

*  Jer.  xxix.  25,  ;j&  •  Jer.  zxi.  2. 


86  DURIN-G  THE  SIEGE. 

munity,  the  prophet  answered  the  king's  messengers  as  the 
spokesman  of  a  higher  than  their  master. 

*' XXXVII.  7.  Thus  saith  Jehovah »  the  God  of  Israel  (said  he  to 
them):  Speak  thus  to  the  king  of  Judah,  that  sent  you  to  inquire  of 
Me.  Behold,  the  army  of  Pharaoh,  which  has  marched  to  reUeve  you, 
shall  return  to  Egypt,  their  own  land.  8.  And  the  Chaldaeans  will 
come  back,  and  fight  against  this  city  and  take  it,  and  burn  it  with 
fire. 

"9.  Thus  saith  Jehovah :  Do  not  deceive  yourselves,  thinking  that 
the  Chaldaeans  are  finally  gone,  for  they  will  not  go.  10.  For  if  ye 
should  smite  the  whole  army  of  the  Chaldaeans  which  fights  against 
you,  and  only  some  wounded  men  remained  of  them,  even  these  would 
stand  up,  every  man  in  his  tent,  and  burn  this  city  with  fire." 

With  this  dismal  message,  the  courtiers  were  forced  to 
be  contented,  but  it  roused  to  the  uttermost  their  hostility 
to  the  prophet,  and  speedily  led  to  active  measures  against 
him.  Availing  himself  of  the  temporary  withdrawal  of 
the  besieging  army,*  he  had  resolved  to  go  out  to  his 
native  village,  Anathoth,  about  three  miles  north-east  of 
Jerusalem,'  apparently  to  secure  his  share  of  the  tithes  and 
produce  of  the  Levitical  glebe  of  the  village,  due  to  him  as 
one  of  its  priests  ;  the  distribution  being  made,  it  would 
seem,  in  public,  at  stated  times.*  Knowing  that  the  Chal- 
daeans would  return,  it  was  imperative  that  he  should  obtain 
the  means  of  subsistence,  to  take  back  into  the  city,  so 
soon  to  be  beleaguered  afresh.^  A  pretext  for  violence 
towards  one  so  unpopular  was  eagerly  wished,  and  this 
supplied  it.     No  sooner,  therefore,  did  he  reach  the  gate 

»  Jer.  xxxvii.  7-10.  '  Jer.  xxxvii.  11-15. 

3  Diet,  of  the  Bible.  <  "  In  the  midst  of  the  people,"  A.V. 

6  This  is  the  best  explanation  of  this  verse  (Jer.  xxxvii.  12).  Some  think  he  went 
to  claim  a  portion  of  land,  but  this  seems  a  matter  not  likely  to  trouble  him  at  such 
a  time.  The  words  translated  "  to  separate  himself,"  literally  mean  "to  take  his 
portion."  Hitzig  thinks  it  was  a  Sabbath  year,  during  which  nothing  had  been 
Bown,  and  that  Jeremiah  went  out  to  claim  his  strip  of  ground  by  seeing  that  the 
boundary  stones  were  right,  before  the  eoil  was  broken  up  for  a  new  crop. 


DURING   THE   SIEGB.  87 

on  the  north  of  the  city,  known  as  tliat  of  Benjamin  or 
Ephraim,'  from  leading  to  the  territory  of  these  tribes, 
than  the  officer  in  charge  of  it  arrested  him^  as  intending 
to  desert  to  the  Chaklaeans — though  these  were  now  away, 
on  their  march  against  Pharaoh  Hophra.  '''It's  a  lie/' 
retorted  Jeremiah,  with  Oriental  blnntness,  when  seized  ; 
"' I'm  not  deserting/'  But  his  indignant  protest  was  not 
heeded,  and  he  was  led  off,  at  once,  as  a  prisoner,  to  the 
princes,  or  privy  council.  These,  unfortunately,  were  no 
longer  the  same  as  had  befriended  him  so  warmly  under 
Jelioiakim/  They  had  probably  been  carried  off  to  Baby- 
lon with  Jeconiah/  From  the  present  officials,  whom  he 
had  compared  to  rotten  figs,*  he  could  expect  no  favour. 
Glad  to  see  their  enemy  caught  at  last,  they  broke  into  a 
storm  of  rage  when  he  appeared,  and  summarily  ordered 
him  to  receive  forty  strokes  save  one,  of  the  stick,  ^  a  terri- 
ble punishment,  inflicted  on  the  naked  body,  as  he  lay  on 
the  ground,  on  his  face,,  men  holding  him  down  by  the  legs 
and  arms,  daring  the  bastinado.  After  this  he  was  to  be 
thrust  into  an  underground  dungeon,  most  probably  a 
large  bottle-shaped  cistern,  such  as  are  still  below  many 
of  the  houses  in  Jerusalem,  or  in  their  "  yards."  In  this 
case,  the  dungeon  was  a  disused  cistern  below  the  house  of 
one  of  their  number,  Jonathan  the  scribe,  perhaps  their 
secretary. 

How  long  the  prophet  lay  in  this  '^  house  of  the  pit,"'  is 
not  known.  It  is  possible  that  the  house  with  which  it  was 
connected  stood  in  the  temple  precincts,  or  near  the  palace, 

1  Jer.  xxxviii.  7.    Zech.  xiv.  10.    2  Kings  xiv.  13.     Neh.  viii.  16. 

2  Jer.  xxvi.  16  ;  xxxvi.  19.  ^  jer_  xxiv.  1  ;  xxix.  2.  <  Jer.  xxiv. 

*  The  text  says  "  smote  him."  Forty  stripes  were  the  legal  maximum  of  a  public 
pcourging  (Deut.  xxv.  .3).  But  only  thirty-nine  were  given,  for  fear  of  exceeding  the 
lawful  number.  For  tlie  mode  of  infliction  see  Lev.  xix.  20.  Deut.  xxii.  18 ;  xxv. 
8,  3.  •  Jer.  xxxvii.  16-21. 


g8  DURIN^G   THE   SIEGE. 

on  the  south  side  of  the  sacred  buildings.  If  so,  one  of  the 
countless  hidden  arches,  by  which  the  surface  was  raised  to 
a  level  along  the  rough  sides  of  Mount  Moriah,  may  have 
been  his  prison  ;  for  the  whole  of  the  plateau  of  both  tem- 
ple and  palace  is  honeycombed  with  a  series  of  vaults  and 
cisterns,  one  of  the  former  extending  150  feet  from  north 
to  south/  But  wherever  the  dungeon  was,  the  sufferings 
of  the  prophet  were  intense  from  cold  or  neglect,  or  both  ; 
so  intense,  indeed,  that  he  felt  himself  sinking  under 
them.'  It  must  have  been  with  no  common  delight  there- 
fore that,  at  last,  he  received  an  order  brought  to  him  from 
the  king,  to  come  secretly  to  the  palace,  and  cheer  the 
monarch's  despair,  if  he  possibly  could,  by  some  words  of 
comfort  from  Jehovah.  Virtually  powerless  in  the  hands 
of  his  court,  the  phantom  ruler  dared  not  consult  him 
openly.  Weak  and  irresolute,  he  could  not  venture  to 
brave  its  anger  by  acting,  even  in  so  small  a  matter,  as 
became  his  office.  Most  men,  after  such  an  imprison- 
ment, would  have  been  glad  to  give  as  favourable  an 
answer  as  they  could.  But  no  personal  consideratioi 
weighed  with  the  prophet.  Brought  face  to  face,  in  some 
private  chamber,  with  the  man  who  held  his  life  or  death 
in  his  hands,  he  calmly  .told  him  :  "  There  is  a  word  from 
Jehovah,  for  He  has  said,  Thou,  Zedekiah,  shalt  be  delivered 
into  the  hands  of  the  king  of  Babylon.'^  Then,  seizing 
the  opportunity  of  being  in  the  presence,  he  went  on  :  "  In 
what  have  I  sinned  against  thee,  or  against  thy  servants,  or 
against  this  people,  tliat  thou  shouldst  throw  me  into  such 
a  dungeon  ?  Where  now  are  thy  prophets  who  told  thee 
that  the  king  of  Babylon  would  not  come  against  thee,  or 
against  this  land  ?     Therefore,  hear  me,  my  lord  king,  and 

1  Captain  Warren.    Eecoveiy  of  Jerusalem,  p.  17-  '  Jer.  xxxvii.  20. 


DURING  THE  SIEGE.  89 

let  my  entreaty  before  thee,  I  pray  thee,  be  granted ;  and 
do  not  send  me  back  to  the  house  of  Jonathan  the  scribe, 
lest  I  die  there/'  Coming  at  such  a  time,  when  the  awful 
dignity  of  his  office  surrounded  the  petitioner,  this  request 
could  not  be  refused.  Orders  were,  therefore,  issued  to 
transfer  him  from  the  ^Miouse  of  the  pit"  he  so  much 
feared,  to  the  ^'  court  of  the  watch,"  and  to  give  him  a  piece 
of  bread  eacli  day,  from  the  Bakers'  Street,'  as  long  as  any 
was  left  in  the  city.  Fear  of  the  nobles,  and  perhaps  of  the 
people,  might  jn-event  his  being  set  free,  but  his  detention 
should  henceforth  be  at  least  less  painful  than  hitherto. 

The  comparative  liberty  of  the  prophet  brought  him, 
however,  into  fresh  danger.'  Chained,  it  may  be,  to  tlie 
wall  of  the  court,  he  had  free  intercourse  with  the  soldiers 
and  people,^  and  since  nothing  would  induce  him  to  keep 
silent  as  to  the  issue  of  the  siege,  his  words  spread  far  and 
near.  That  their  enemy  should  thus  be  more  influential 
than  ever,  infuriated  the  nobles  of  the  council.*  It  was 
reported  to  some  of  them,  among  others  to  Jucal,  who  had 
recently  visited  him  from  the  king,  and  Pashur,'  the  son 
of  Malchiah,  Avho  liad  been  one  of  the  first  deputation  to 
him  from  Zedekiah,^  that  he  had  said,  ''  Thus  saith  JehO' 
vah,  He  who  remains  in  this  town  will  die  by  the  sword, 
the  famine,  and  the  pestilence  ;  but  he  that  goes  out  to  the 


>  The  bread  was  made  then,  as  now,  in  round  pieces,  about  eight  inches  across, 
and  an  inch  thick,  and  three  of  these  were  required  for  a  meal  (Luke  xi.  5).  One 
was,  therefore,  barely  enough  to  support  life  (1  Sam.  ii.  ZfS^.  Public  bakers  are  men- 
tioned in  Hos.  vii.4, 6.  As  with  othertrades  in  the  East  at  the  present  time,  bakers 
lived  in  one  street  in  Jerusalem.  We  read  of  the  '•  Tower  of  the  Ovens,"  Neh.  iii. 
11 ;  xii.  38  (furnaces  A.  V.). 

'  Jer.  xxxviii.  1-3.  •  Jer.  xxxviii.  1  ;  xxxil.  8,  12. 

*  Jer.  xxxviii.  1. 

s  Jucal  and  Pashur  were  confidential  officers  of  the  king.  Jer.  xxi.  1  ;  xxxvii.  3. 
Of  Shephatiah  we  know  nothing.  Gedaliah  was  perhaps  a  son  of  thai,  Pashur  who 
put  Jeremiah  in  the  stocks.    Jer.  xx.  1,2.  «  Jer.  xxi.  1. 


90  DUIIIN"G   THE   SIEGE. 

Chaldseans  shall  live  ;  he  will  have  his  life  for  his  share  ot 
the  spoil,  and  shall  not  die.  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  This 
town  shall,  assuredly,  be  given  into  the  hand  of  the  army 
of  the  king  of  Babylon,  and  will  be  taken  by  them/' 

The  resolution  of  the  council  was  speedily  formed/ 
Going  to  the  king,  they  demanded  that  the  prophet  should 
be  put  to  death,  since  his  words  were  dispiriting  the  fight- 
ing men  left  in  the  town,  and  the  people  at  large.  He  was 
a  traitor,  they  maintained,  seeking  the  hurt  of  the  city. 
Zedekiah  might  have  reminded  them  that  no  blame  could 
attach  to  the  prophet,  since  he  only  repeated  words  put  in 
his  mouth  by  God  Himself  ;  words  which  he  was  bound  to 
deliver.  But  to  play  the  man  was  beyond  him.  Cowed  by 
their  bearing,  he  at  once  gave  way,  telling  them  that  Jere- 
miah was  in  their  hands,  since  they  ruled,  not  he.  Thus 
authorized,  they  ordered  their  victim  to  be  seized  forthwith 
and  put  into  the  underground  rain-cistern  of  Malchiah,  a 
member  of  the  royal  family,  in  the  court  of  the  guard, 
where  he  then  was.  Tying  cords  round  him,  therefore,  he 
was  let  down,  through  the  funnel-shaped  mouth,*  into  this 
hideous  dungeon.  Fortunately,  there  was  no  water  in  it ; 
but  the  bottom  was  covered  with  deep  mud,  into  which  the 
prophet  sank.  It  was  clear  that  his  life  was  to  be  taken, 
with  every  aggravation  of  previous  misery  ;  for  the  cold 
and  wet  must  soon  have  killed  him,  had  not  help  been  at 
hand. 

Among  the  officials"  of  the  palace  was  a  black  eunuch 
from  Africa,  such  as  wc  see  daily  in  Constantinople  and 
Egypt,  apparently  the  keeper  of  the  royal  harem,  whose 
title  only — Ebed  Melech,    '^  the   king^s  slave  " — has  been 

1  Jer.  xxxviii.  5,  6.  »  See  vol.  1.  p.  425}     vol.  iii.  p.  333. 

'  Jer.  xxxviii.  7-13. 


DURIN'G   THE   SIEGE.  91 

preserved.  News  of  the  prophet's  treatment  having  reached 
him,  he  hurried  to  Zedekiah,  who,  at  the  moment,  was  en- 
gaged on  some  public  duty  in  the  vacant  space  inside  the 
North  or  Benjamin  Gate,  and  told  him  what  had  hap- 
penedp  boldly  denouncing  it,  and  adding  that  the  suf- 
ferer would  die  of  hunger  in  the  cistern,  since  there  was 
now  no  more  bread  in  the  town.  ^*  Take  thirty  men  with 
you''  (or,  according  to  a  more  probable  reading,  '^take 
three"),  replied  the  king,  with  unwonted  decision,  **  and 
get  him  out  of  the  cistern  before  he  die."  As  quickly  as 
possible  the  eunuch  was  at  the  mouth  of  the  cistern,  to 
cheer  the  prophet  by  announcing  his  deliverance.  Eopes 
passed  down,  with  rags  to  put  under  the  armpits,  to  pre- 
vent the  strain  from  chafing  them,  soon  did  the  rest,  and 
Jeremiah  once  more  saw  the  light  and  took  his  old  place  in 
the  court  of  the  guard.  The  spasmodic  vigour  of  Zedekiah 
in  this  incident  was  touching.  The  want  of  moral  courage 
alone,  had,  apparently,  brought  him  into  all  his  trouble. 
Balked  and  overridden  by  the  Egyptian  party,  he  had 
wanted  strength  of  mind  to  turn  against  them  and  free 
himself.  He  had  submitted  to  break  his  oath  to  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, and  make  an  alliance  with  Egypt,  against  his  own 
convictions,  and  he  could  not  act  decisively  even  now, 
though  his  life  was  in  the  balance.  Jeremiah  saw  his 
position  exactly.  A  mere  puppet  in  the  hands  of  his 
council,  he  had  only  to  flee  to  the  Chaldaean  camp,  and  tell 
the  truth,  and  it  would  be  recognized,  to  his  personal 
acquittal.  The  guilt  of  the  revolt  would  at  once  be  shifted 
to  the  right  shoulders,  those  of  the  imperious  Egyptian 
faction,  who  now  in  effect  reigned.  Zedekiah,  unlike 
them,  respected  Jeremiah  as  a  true  prophet,  and  was  not 
without  reverence  towards  Jehovah.     But  he  had  no  force 


92  DURING   THE   SIEGE. 

of  character.  Eager  to  consult  the  prophet,  he  had  not 
courage  to  act  on  his  advice  when  given.  A  proof  of  this 
was  soon  shewn.' 

With  a  town  now  reduced  to  famine  and  even  cannibal- 
ism/ and  decimated  by  the  plague  ;  the  houses  full  of  the 
sick  and  wounded  ;  bloody  fights  between  contending  par- 
ties, as  to  surrendering  or  holding  out,  crowding  the  streets 
with  fresh  horrors  ;  the  roar  of  the  siege  night  and  day  fill- 
ing the  air  ;  Zedekiah  was  fain  once  more  to  seek  counsel 
from  the  prophet.  But  lie  could  only  venture  to  see  him 
privately.^  A  covered  passage  leading  from  the  palace  to 
the  temple  *  afforded  the  opportunity,  and  thither,  where 
no  one  could  witness  the  interview,  Jeremiah  was  brought. 
Stout-hearted  in  words,  Zedekiah  now,  while  no  one  saw 
or  heard,  would  have  nothing  hidden  from  him.  The 
prophet  might  speak  out  fearlessly.  But  the  terrors  of  the 
recent  past,  and  his  knowledge  of  the  king's  fickleness  and 
effeminacy,  had  made  him,  also,  cautious.  '^  If  I  tell  you 
all  that  God  has  said,  will  you  not  kill  me  ?  "  replied  he. 
''  And  is  it  not  the  Case,  that  even  if  I  do  counsel  you,  you 
will  not  hear  me  ?  "  But  Zedekiah,  in  mortal  anxiety,  was 
ready  to  give  any  assurances.  He  swore,  ^^by  the  life  of 
Jehovah,  who  created  our  life  in  us,"  that  he  would  neither 
himself  kill  him,  nor  deliver  him  up  to  the  men  who  sought 
liis  life.  Thus  assured,  Jeremiah  repeated  what  he  had  so 
often  said,  that  if  Zedekiah  gave  himself  up  to  the  Ohal- 
daeans,  he  would  save  his  life,  and  that  of  his  house,  and 
Jerusalem  would  not  be  burned  ;  while,  if  he  did  not,  the 
city  would  be  destroyed,  aud  he  liimself  would  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy.     lie  took  care,  however,  to  say  noth- 

I  Jer.  xxxviii.  14-19.  ^  Lam.  iv.  10.  ^  j^.f   xxxvii.  17. 

■  The  "  third  entry  "  (Jer.  xxxviii.  14)  seems  to  have  been  such  a  passage. 


DURING  THE  SIEGE.  93 

ing  about  the  '^  princes  "  who  had  stirred  up  the  revolt, 
knowing  that  their  doom  was  fixed,  in  any  case. 

But  the  "  I  will  and  I  will  not "  of  moral  weakness  held 
the  i^oor  man  like  a  spell.'  He  was  afraid,  he  said,  that 
the  Chaldaeans  would  hand  him  over  to  the  Jewish  desert- 
ers in  their  camp,  and  that  these  would  mock  him.  ''They 
will  not  deliver  you  up  to  them,''  replied  Jeremiah. 
''  Obey,  I  beseech  you,  the  voice  of  Jehovah,  which  I 
speak  to  you,  and  it  will  be  well  with  you,  and  your  soul 
will  live.  But  if  you  refuse  to  go  out  of  Jerusalem  and 
give  yourself  up  to  the  Ohaldaeans — this  is  the  word  that 
Jehovah  has  revealed  to  me  :  Behold,  all  the  women  of 
the  harem,  that  are  left  in  your  palace — wives,  concubines, 
and  attendants — shall  be  brought  out  as  prisoners,  to  the 
generals  "^  of  the  king  of  Babylon,  and  even  these  women 
will  mock  your  weakness,  singing  : 

"  *  Your  friends  (0  King  Zedekiah, — the  court  party—)  have  led  you 

astray 
And  have  made  a  puppet  of  you  :  ^ 

** '  Your  feet  sank  in  the  slough  into  which  they  led  you. 
And  now  (instead  of  helping  you)  they  draw  back, 
(And  leave  you  to  get  out  as  you  best  can).' 

"  Thus  *  they  will  bring  out  all  your  wives  and  your 
children,  to  the  Ohaldaeans,  and  you,  yourself,  will  not 
escape  out  of  their  hands  ;  you  will  be  captured  by  the  king 
of  Babylon,  and  your  refusal  to  obey  God's  voice  will  cause 
this  city  to  be  burned  with  fire.'' 

The  fate  of  the  weakling  hung  in  the  balance,^  but  his 
irresolution  and  cowardice  weighed  down  the  scale  against 
him.     Fear  of   the  tyrannical  oliir;irchy  unmanned    him. 

*  Jer.  xxxviii.  19-22.  '  Princes.  '  Overpowered  you, 

*  Jer.  xxxviii.  23.  '  Jer.  xxxviii.  1:24-28. 


94  DURING   THE   SIEGE. 

Tliey  must  on  no  account  know  that  lie  had  spoken  to  the 
prophet ;  nothing  that  had  been  said  between  the  two  must 
be  repeated.  He  had,  moreover,  the  meanness  to  draw 
back  from  his  oath,  so  far  as  to  say  that  it  would  be  kept 
only  if  perfect  secrecy  were  maintained,  and  he  even 
stooped  to  ask  Jeremiah  to  equivocate.  Should  the  princes, 
hearing  of  the  interview,  threaten  him  with  death  if  he 
did  not  tell  what  had  passed  at  it,  he  was  to  answer,  that 
he  had  asked  not  to  be  be  sent  back  to  the  prison  in  Jona- 
than's house.  No  doubt  this  favour  had  been  requested, 
else  Jeremiah  would  not  have  said  so,  yet  it  was  by  no 
means  the  whole  truth.  But  Jeremiah  felt  himself  free  to 
act  on  the  king's  recommendation.  He  was  not  bound  to 
tell  his  mortal  enemies  everything,  and  he  did  not  do  so. 
When,  therefore,  they  came,  he  had  the  adroitness  to  put 
them  off  with  this  answer,  and  was  left  without  further 
annoyance,  a  prisoner  in  the  court  of  the  guard,  till  the 
city  was  taken. 

While  these  events  were  passing,  the  Chaldaean  army  had 
returned  and  recommenced  the  siege  ;  Pharaoh  Hophra 
having  been  driven  back.'  But  though  the  prophet  knew 
that  the  city  must  fall,  he  abated  nothing  of  his  calm  assur- 
ance that  it  would  hereafter  rise  from  its  ashes,  and  that 
Judah  would  once  more  flourish.  He  felt  that  his  race  was 
the  chosen  people  of  God,  and  that  the  promises  to  it  im- 
plied such  a  restoration. 

An  opportunity  for  shewing  this  confidence,  so  well-fitted 
to  cheer  true  followers  of  the  ancient  religion,  strangely 
offered  itself  while  the  immediate  prospects  of  the  State 
were  sinking  to  the  lowest. 

A  cousin  of  Jeremiah,  Hanameel,''  son  of  Shallum,  the 

*  Jer.  xxxii.  1-5.  '  Jer.  xxxii.  6-15. 


DURING   THE   SIEGE.  95 

prophet's  uncle,  a  2^nest  like  himself,  had  a  plot  of  ground 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Anathoth,'  which  he  wished  to  sell. 
Jewish  law,  however,  prohibited  free  sale,  and  required  that 
ground  in  the  market  should  be  offered  to  the  next  of  kin, 
that  it  might  still  remain  in  the  family.'  The  lands 
strictly  belonging  to  the  tribe  of  Levi  could  not  be  sold,  as 
they  were  held  in  common,*  but  Ilanamecl  may  have  inher- 
ited this  piece  through  his  mother,"  and  having  no  children,'* 
may  thus  have  been  free  to  dispose  of  it,  like  Barnabas  the 
Levite,  in  later  times.* 

Jeremiah  being  the  next  heir,  and,  as  such,  holding  also 
the  right  of  redemption  in  the  Jubilee  year,'  had  the  ground 
from  any  cause  been  sold  to  a  third  party,  Hanameel  natu- 
rally came  to  him,  to  offer  him  the  option  of  purchase.  We 
do  not  know  w^hy  he  wished  to  sell,  but  the  darkness  of  the 
times  Avas  reason  enough.  His  j)roposal  was  at  once  recog- 
nized by  the  prophet,  as  in  accordance  with  a  Divine  pre- 
intimation  received  beforehand,  and  a  bargain  was  forth- 
with struck.  The  price  was  small  according  to  our  notions 
— only  seventeen  shekels  * — about  two  guineas — but  the  pe- 
culiarities of  the  Jewish  land  laws,  and  possibly  the  press- 
ure of  the  times,  may  have  affected  its  value.  Two  copies 
of  a  deed  were  duly  written,  or,  more  probably,  stamped,  in 
Babylonian  fashion,  on  clay  tablets  or  cylinders,  and  wit- 

i  It  must  have  been  within  2,000  cubits  of  the  village.    Num.  xxxv.  5. 

2  Lev.  XXV.  24,  25  ;  Ruth  iv.  6.    Keil,  Bib.  Arc7i<ml.  p.  208, 

3  Lev.  XXV.  34.     See  Grotii,  Annot.  on  Jos.,  24,  33. 

*  Num.  xxvi.  8.  s  This  is  implied. 

«  Acts  iv.  37.  7  Lev.  xxv.  23-28. 

8  In  the  margin  the  Hebrew  is  correctly  translated  "  seven  shekels  and  ten  pieces 
of  silver,"  a  form  of  expression  which  has  led  to  the  idea  that  the  seven  shekels  were 
golden.  This,  however,  is  a  mere  conjecture.  We  do  not  know  the  size  of  the  piece 
of  ground,  which  may  have  been  very  small,  and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  pur- 
ch  ise  was,  in  reality,  only  that  of  its  crop.s,  till  the  next  year  of  Jubilee,  which  may 
have  been  not  far  ofiE.  Besides,  silver  was  very  much  more  valuable  then  than  now, 
Araunah's  floor  was  bought  for  50  shukeis.    2  Sam.  xxiv.  24. 


96  DUKIKG   THE   SIEGE. 

nesses  having  been  called,  the  money  was  weighed  out  in 
the  scales,  as  is  still  the  custom  in  the  East.  One  deed 
having  l)een  left  open  for  reference,  and  the  other  carefully 
sealed  up,  both  were  handed  to  Baruch,  the  constant  friend 
of  the  prophet,  before  Hanameel  and  the  witnesses  who  had 
signed  the  documents,  and  all  the  Jews  who  sat  as  pris- 
oners in  the  court  of  the  guard,  with  the  request  that  they 
should  be  put  into  an  earthen  vessel  for  preservation,  for 
'^  houses  and  lands  and  vineyards  shall  one  day  be  again 
bought  in  the  land/^  Jehovah  had  said  it.  The  whole 
transaction  was  striking,  at  such  a  time.  We  extol  the 
patriotism  of  the  Itoman,  who  bought,  at  its  full  price,  the 
land  on  whicli  Hannibal's  camp  was  j^itched,  outside  tbe 
gates  of  Eome,'  but  it  Avas  even  nobler,  in  the  son  of  a  fee- 
ble race  like  tlie  Jews,  to  buy  a  field,  at  the  moment  in  the 
hands  of  a  mighty  power  like  Babylon,  knowing,  as  he  did, 
that  before  the  2-)urchase  could  be  of  value,  his  people  must 
expiate  their  sins  by  captivity  for  two  generations  in  a  far- 
distant  hind.  The  cylinders  or  tablets  having  been  duly 
baked,  and  thus  hardened  for  2:>reservation,  each  of  them 
bearing  a  copy  of  the  full  record,  would  be  enclosed  in  an 
outer  clay  covering,  on  which  was  stamped  an  abstract  of 
the  deed  within,  and  giving  the  names  of  the  witnesses,  and 
this  would,  finally,  be  put  into  a  clay  jar  to  protect  it,  and 
laid  away  safely,  like  the  many  clay  deeds  of  the  Egibi 
Bank  at  Babylon — the  great  banking  establishment  of 
Babylonia  from  the  time  of  Nebuchadnezzar  to  that  of 
Xerxes — the  clay  records  of  which  now  enrich  the  British 
Museum. 

That  he  should  have  acted  thus  derives  an  additional 
moral  grandeur,  as  an  act  of  passive  obedience  to  Divine 

^  Liv.,  xxvi.  11.    Florus,  ii.  6. 


DURING   THE   SIEGE.  97 

command,  in  the  face  of  overwhelming  perplexity  as  to 
the  possible  realization  of  the  hopes  it  implied.  Jeremiah 
knew  that  Jerusalem  would  hereafter  rise  from  its  ashes, 
and  Judah  again  be  peopled,  because  God  had  said  it ;  but 
to  reconcile  this  with  the  further  knowledge  that  the  city, 
and  even  the  temple,  would,  within  a  short  time,  be  burned 
to  the  ground,  and  the  population  of  the  whole  land  be 
carried  off  to  Babylon,  was  beyond  his  powers.  Under 
such  circumstances  he  betook  himself,  as  godly  men  have 
done  in  all  ages,  to  Him  who  alone  could  make  darkness 
light.  Prayer,  to  him,  as  to  us,  was  the  natural  language 
of  the  earthly  child  to  his  Heavenly  Father. 

When,  therefore,  he  had  delivered  to  Baruch  the  two 
title-deeds,  he  sought  relief  to  his  soul  in  its  difficulties,  by 
asking  light  from  God.*  Bowing  low,  it  may  be  before  all, 
in  the  court  of  the  guard,  fettered  as  he  was,  he  breathed 
out  to  Jehovah  the  deep  cry  of  his  heart ;  speaking,  we  may 
fancy,  like  Hannah,  in  his  soul  only  ;  the  lips  moving,  but 
no  audible  words  escaping  them. 

"XXXII.  17.  0  Thou,  Lord  Jehovah!  ^  Behold,  Thou  hast  made 
heaven  and  earth  by  Thy  great  power  and  Thine  outstretched  arm; 
nothing  is  too  hard  for  Thee!  18.  Thou  shewest  lovingkindness  to 
thousands,  and  payest  back  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  into  the  bosom 
of  their  children  after  them :  ^  Thou  great  and  mighty  God,  Jehovah  of 
Hosts  is  Thy  name.  19.  Great  in  counsel,  and  mighty  in  deeds;  whose 
eyes  are  open  upon  all  the  ways  of  the  sons  of  men,  to  give  every  one 
according  to  his  ways  and  according  to  the  fruit  of  his  doings!  20. 
Thou  didst  signs  and  wonders  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  doest  them 
even  to  this  day,  both  in  Israel  and  to  men  at  large,  and  hast  made 
Thyself,  even  now,  a  name  I     21.  And  thou  leddest  forth  Thy  people 

»  Jer.  xxxii.  7-16.  '  Jer.  xxxii.  17-21. 

>  The  language  is  borrowed  from  the  custom  of  pouring  grain  or  the  like  into  the 
lifted-up  fold  of  the  outer  garment,  which  ia  made,  as  it  were,  into  a  bag  for  the 
time.  Ruth  iii.  15.  Prov.  xvii.  23.  Num.  xi.  12.  Isa.  xl.  11 ;  Ixv.  6,  7.  Luke  vi, 
38. 

VOL.  VI.~7 


98  DURING   THE   SIEGE. 

Israel  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  with  signs  and  wonders,  and  a  strong 
hand,  and  a  stretched-out  arm,  and  with  great  terror  (to  their  enemies); 
22.  and  gavest  them  this  land,'  which  Thoii  hadst  sworn  to  their 
fathers  to  give  them — a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey.  23.  And 
they  came  in,  and  took  possession  of  it ;  but  they  obeyed  not  Thy  voice, 
neither  walked  in  Thy  law:  -  they  have  done  nothing  of  all  that  Thou 
commandedst  them  to  do — therefore  Thou  hast  let  all  this  evil  come 
upon  them. 

"24.  Behold!  the  mounds^  of  the  enemy  reach  to  the  town,  to  take 
it;  the  city  is  given,  by  sword,  famine,  and  pestilence,  into  the  hands 
of  the  Chaldaeans  who  besiege  it,  and  what  Thou  hast  said  is  come  to 
pass:  Thou,  Thyself,  seest  it!  25.  Yet  Thou  hast  said  to  me,  0  Lord 
Jehovah,  Buy  the  field  for  money,  and  take  witnesses  (to  the  purchase) 
— though  the  city  is  (already,  as  it  were,)  given  into  the  hands  of  the 
Chaldaeans." 

A  prayer  so  lowly  and  fervent  had  favour  with  God. 
The  still  small  voice  of  the  Almighty  presently  answered  it 
in  the  soul  of  the  prophet. 

"27.  Behold,  I  am  Jehovah,  the  God  of  all  flesh:  is  there  anything 
impossible  to  Me?  28.  Therefore,  thus  saith  Jehovah,  Behold,  I  will  give 
this  city  into  the  hand  of  the  Chaldtcans,  and  into  the  hand  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, king  of  Babylon,  and  lie  shall  take  it.  29.  The  Chaldfeans 
who  fight  against  it  shall  come  in,  and  set  fire  to  it,  and  burn  it,  and, 
with  it,  the  houses  on  whose  roofs  they  burned  incense  to  Baal,  and 
poured  out  drink  offerings  to  other  gods,  to  provoke  Me  to  anger.  30. 
For  the  sons  of  Israel  and  the  sons  of  Judah  have  done  only  evil  before 
Me  from  their  youth  (as  a  people).  For  the  sons  of  Israel  (as  a  whole) 
have  done  nothing  but  provoke  Me  with  the  work  of  their  hands,*  saith 
Jehovah.     31.  This  city  (Jerusalem)  has  been  to  Me  a  provocation  ^  of 

»  Jer.  xxxii.  22-31.  '  Torah. 

'  The  first  step  in  a  siege  was  probably  to  advance  the  battering  ram.  If  the  castle 
was  built,  as  in  the  plains  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  on  an  artificial  eminence,  an  in- 
clined plane  reaching  to  the  top  of  the  height  was  formed  of  earth,  stones,  or  trees, 
and  the  besiegers  were  thus  able  to  bring  their  engines  to  the  foot  of  the  walls,  and 
also  to  escalade  the  walls,  the  top  of  which  might  otherwise  have  been  beyond  the  reach 
of  their  ladders.  Layard's  Nineveh,  vol.  ii.  pp.  36-7.  See  Isa.  xxxvii.  33;  2  Kings  xix. 
32.    The  Egyptians  followed  the  same  plan.    Ezek.  xvii.  17. 

<  Their  idols.    Chap.  x.  3-9.    Deut.  iv.  28.    2  Kings  xix.  18. 

s  A  burden  on  My  anger,  demanding  indignation  being  shewn. 


DURING   THE   SIEGE.  99 

My  anger  and  of  jNIv  fury,  from  the  day  that  they  built  it '  to  this  day — 
(demanding)  that  I  should  put  it  away  from  before  My  face  32.  on 
account  of  all  the  evil  of  the  sons  of  Israel, '^  and  of  the  sons  of  Judah, 
which  they  have  done  to  provoke  Me  to  anger ;  they,  their  kings,  their 
princes,^  their  priests,  and  their  prophets;  the  men  of  Judah  and  the 
inhabitants  of  Jerusalem.  33.  They  turned  their  back  to  Me  and  not 
their  face,  and  though  I  earnestly  and  unweariedly  taught  them  (through 
My  prophets),  they  would  not  listen,  to  receive  instruction.  34.  Instead 
of  that,  they  set  up  their  abominable  idols  in  the  House  which  is  called 
by  My  name,  to  defile  it,  35,  and  built  high  places  to  Baal,  in  the  Val- 
ley of  Benhinnom,  to  cause  their  sons  and  their  daughters  to  pass 
through  the  fire  to  Moloch — which  I  neither  commanded  them  to  do, 
nor  ever  had  it  in  My  mind  (to  permit  their  doing) ;  causing  Judah  (as 
it  did)  to  sin. 

"36.  Now,  therefore,  thus  saith  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  con- 
cerning this  city,  of  which  you  (rightly)  say  that  '  it  will  be  delivered 
into  the  hand  of  the  king  of  Babylon,  by  sword,  famine,  and  pesti- 
lence.' 37.  Behold!  I  will  (hereafter)  gather  them  from  all  lands 
whither  I  have  driven  them,  in  My  anger  and  in  My  fury  and  in  My 
fierce  wrath.  And  I  will  bring  them  back  to  this  place,  and  cause 
them  to  dwell  securely  in  it,  38.  and  they  shall  be  My  people,  and  I 
will  be  their  God.  39.  And  I  will  give  them  one  heart  and  one  way, 
that  they  may  fear  Me  for  ever,*  for  their  own  good  and  that  of  their 
children  after  them.  40.  And  I  will  make  an  everlasting  covenant 
with  them,  that  I  will  not  draw  back  from  them,  or  from  doing  them 
good ;  and  I  will  put  My  fear  in  their  hearts,  so  that  they  may  not 
(again)  turn  away  from  Me  (as  in  the  past).  41.  And  I  will  rejoice 
over  them  to  do  them  good,  and  I  will  assuredly  *  plant  them  in  this 
land,  with  My  whole  heart,  and  with  My  whole  soul. 

' '  42.  For  thus  saith  Jehovah :  As  I  have  brought  all  this  great  evil 
on  this  people,  so  I  will  bring  to  them  all  the  good  that  I  have  promised 
them.  43.  And  plough-land  and  pasture  shall  be  bought  in  this  coun- 
try, respecting  which  ye  say,  '  It  is  desolate,  without  man  or  beast ;  it 
is  given  into  the  hands  of  the  Chaldaeans.'  44.  Men  will  (once  more) 
buy  fields  ®  for  money,  and  sign  deeds,  and  seal  them,  and  call  wit- 
nesses (to  the  purchase — here),  in  the  land  of  Benjamin,  and  round 
about  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  towns  of  Judah,  and  in  the  towns  in  the 
hills,  and  in  those  of  the  Shephelah,  and  in  the  towns  of  the  Negeb. 

1  2  Sam.  V.  6,  7.  "^  Jer.  xxxii.  32-44.  »  Leading  men. 

♦  Deut.  iv.  10  ;  vi.  24.  *  Hebrew,  in  truth. 

•  Literally,  "the  field,"  i.e.,  land  over  the  country. 


100  DURING    THE    SIEGE. 

For  I  will  put  an  end  to  their  captivity,  and  restore  them  to  their  own 
country,  saith  Jehovah." 

But  the  ''  Hearer  of  Prayer'^  was  not  content  even  with 
this  full  answer  to  His  servant^s  petition.  Not  long  after- 
wards, amidst  the  terrible  progress  of  the  siege,  when 
many  houses  near  tlie  walls  had  been  pulled  down  for 
materials  of  defence,  and  the  prophet  was  still  a  prisoner  in 
the  court  of  the  guard,  ^'^the  "Word  "  came  to  him  a  second 
time. 

"XXXIII.  2.  Thus  saith  Jehovah,'  who  does  what  He  hath  pur- 
posed; Jehovah  who  determines  what  He  wills,  and  carries  it  out; 
Jehovah  is  His  name!  3.  Call  upon  Me  and  I  will  answer  thee,  and 
make  known  to  thee  great  and  secret  things  ^  which  thou  dost  not 
know!  4.  For  thus  says  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  concerning  the 
houses  of  this  city,  Jerusalem,  and  concerning  the  houses  of  the  kings 
of  Judah,  which  have  been  pulled  down  for  (material  with  which  to 
strengthen  the  town  wall  against)  the  battering-rams,^  and  (to  build 
up  new  defences  against)  the  swords  (of  the  storming  columns):  5.  The 
citizens  will  advance  to  fight  with  the  Chaldaeans;  but  they  will  only 
fill  the  houses  with  the  bodies  of  men,  whom  I  have  slain  in  My  anger 
and  in  My  fury,  and  for  all  whose  wickedness  I  have  hid  My  face  from 
this  city." 

But  still  God  has  not  finally  cast  off  His  people. 

"  6.  Behold,  I  will  lay  on  the  wounds  of  the  people  a  bandage  and 
healing  salve,  and  will  cure  them,  and  I  will  pour  down  *  on  them  a 
fulness  of  peace  and  truth.  7.  And  I  will  bring  back  the  captives  of 
Judah  and  Israel,  and  will  build  up  the  state,  as  of  old.  8.  And  I  will 
cleanse  them  from  all  their  iniquity  that  they  have  sinned  against  Me, 
and  I  will  pardon  all  their  sins  that  they  have  committed,  and  in 
which  they  have  fallen  away  from  Me.  9.  And  Jerusalem  shall,  again, 
be  to  Me  a  name  of  joy,  a  praise  and  an  honour  before  all  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  who  shall  hear  all  the  good  that  I  do  to  it;  and  they  shall 
fear  and  tremble  ^  (with  awe),  at  all  the  goodness  and  all  the  prosperity 
that  I  prepare  for  it. 

^  Jer.  xxxiii.  1-9.  ^  Literally,  "unapproachable." 

'  Literally,  "  mounts."  <  "Roll  down."  *"  A  fearful  joy." 


DURING   THE  SIEGE.  101 

**10.  Thus  saith  Jeliovali,^  There  shall  again  be  heard  in  this  place, 
of  which  you  say,  '  It  is  desolate,  without  man  and  without  beast ' — 
in  the  cities  of  Judah  and  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  that  are  (about 
to  be  left)  desolate,  without  men  and  without  inhabitants,  and  without 
beast,  11.  the  sounds  of  joy  and  gladness;  the  voice  of  the  bridegroom 
and  of  the  bride, ^  and  the  words  of  singing — 

"  '  Give  thanks  unto  Jehovah  of  Hosts;  for  Jehovah  is  good, 
For  His  mercy  endureth  for  ever! ' 

the  chant  of  them  that  bring  the  thankoffering  into  the  House  of 
Jehovah!  For  I  will  bring  back  the  captives,  and  restore  things  as  in 
your  happiest  times,  saith  Jehovah. 

"12.  Thus  saith  Jehovah  of  Hosts:  Again,  in  this  place  which  is 
(about  to  be)  desolate,  witliout  man  and  without  beast,  and  in  all  the 
towns  of  Judah,  shall  be  a  gathering  place  of  shepherds,  leading  their 
sheep  to  rest.  13.  In  the  hill  towns,  in  the  towns  of  the  Shephelah, 
and  in  those  of  the  Negeb,  in  the  land  of  Benjamin  and  in  the  parts 
round  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  town  of  Judah,  the  sheep  will  again  pass 
under  the  rod "  of  him  that  counts  them,  saith  Jehovah.  14.  Behold 
the  days  come,  saith  Jehovah,  when  I  will  perform  that  good  word 
which  I  have  spoken  concerning  the  house  of  Israel  and  the  house  of 
Judah." 

In  those  days  the  kingly  and  priestly  offices  will  be 
restored. 

•'  15.  In  those  days  and  at  that  time,  saith  Jehovah,  I  will  cause  a 
Stem  of  Righteousness  to  grow  up  from  David,*  and  He  will  execute 
justice  and  righteousness  in  the  land.  16.  In  those  days  Judah  will 
be  saved,  and  Jerusalem  Avill  dwell  securely;  and  for  this  men  will 
call  Him,  Jehovah  is  our  Righteousness. 

''  17.  For  thus  saith  Jehovah:    David  shall  never  want  a  man  to  sit 

i  Jer.  xxxiii.  10-17. 

'  A  sound  of  music,  shrill  and  sharp,  announces  the  approach  of  a  nuptial  proces- 
sion. In  front,  march  the  players  on  fifes  and  tambourines,  and  next  two  lines  of 
women  and  girls,  in  the  middle  of  whom  is  the  bride,  walking  between  two  elder 
women.  Four  men  hold  over  her  head  a  dais  of  pink  gauze,  and  a  woman  waves 
before  her  a  large  feather  fan.  She  is  entirely  covered  with  a  veil,  and  has  on  her 
head  a  red  cloth,  surmounted  with  a  coronet  of  gold.  The  whole  party  utter  cries  of 
joy.    Bovet's  Egypt,  etc.,  p.  43.  3  Literally,  ''  hands." 

*  Of  Da\id's  race,  from  his  root  or  stock.  Verses  15  and  16  are  the  eame  as  Jer. 
xxiii.  5,  6. 


102  DURING   THE   SIEGE. 

upon  the  throne  of  the  house  of  Israel.  18.  Nor  shall  the  priests,'  the 
Levites,  ever  want  a  man  before  Me,  to  offer  burnt  offerings,  to  l^indle 
(the  fire  on  the  altar  for)  flour  offerings,  and  to  burn  sacrifices  to  Me, 
for  ever." 

This  covenant  with  David,  and  with  the  priests,  would, 
be  as  sure  as  the  order  of  nature. 

' '  20.  Thus  saith  Jehovah :  If  ye  can  break  My  covenant  with  the 
day  and  with  the  night,  so  that  there  shall  be  no  longer  day  or  night 
in  its  season,  21.  then  may,  also,  My  covenant  with  David  My  servant 
be  broken,  that  he  should  not  have  a  son  to  reign  upon  his  throne ; 
and  My  covenant  with  the  Levites,  the  priests,  My  ministers !  22.  As 
the  hosts  of  heaven  cannot  be  numbered,  nor  the  sand  of  the  sea  meas- 
ured, so  will  I  multiply  the  seed  of  David  My  servant,  and  of  the 
Levites,  who  minister  to  Me. " 

The  glorious  assurance  thus  given  respecting  the  throne 
and  the  altar,  is  next  extended  to  the  people  as  a  whole. 

"24.  Have  you  not  thought  of  what  the  people  say — 'The  two 
families  (Judah  and  Israel),  whom  Jehovah  chose,  He  has  cast  off'? 
With  such  words  they  dishonour  My  people,  declaring  that  it  is  no 
longer  a  nation  in  their  eyes.  25.  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  If  I  have  not 
established  My  covenant  with  day  and  night,  or  ordained  the  ordi- 
nances of  heaven  and  earth,  20.  then  will  I  also  cast  off  the  seed  of 
Jacob,  and  of  David  My  servant,  and  take  no  more  rulers  from  his 
seed,  to  be  over  the  seed  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob!  But  I  will 
cause  the  captives  to  return  and  will  have  mercy  upon  them !  " 

»  Jer.  xxxiii.  18-26. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    FALL    OF    JERUSALEM. 

The  siege  of  Jerusalem  had  begun  on  the  10th  of  the 
month  Kislew,  nearly  our  December,  in  the  year  B.C. 
591,  but  had  been  interrupted  for  two  or  three  months 
by  the  departure  of  the  Chaldeans,  to  repel  the  advance 
of  Pharaoh  Hophra.  This  effected,  the  struggle  had  re- 
commenced with  more  fury  than  ever.  But  the  Jews,  like 
all  Orientals,  were  stubborn  in  their  resistance  behind  the 
walls  of  a  fortress,  and  held  out  bravely,  against  the  tre- 
mendous superiority  of  their  assailants.  Nothing  could 
subdue  their  courage.  They  had  trusted  in  Hophra 
relieving  them,  but  fought  none  the  less  manfully  when 
they  found  their  expectations  deceived.  Jeremiah,  a 
prisoner  in  the  court  of  the  watch,  in  vain  counselled  sur- 
render, as  the  only  means  of  preserving  the  city,  or  the 
lives  and  liberties  of  its  citizens.  He  was  assailed  by 
charges  of  treachery,  and  by  threats,  for  damping  the 
spirits  of  the  population.  That  a  place,  in  all  probability, 
of  not  more  than  20,000  *  inhabitants  should  have  kept  at 
bay  the  whole  strength  of  Nebuchadnezzar  for  nearly 
eighteen  months,  shews  a  noble  defence,  even  admitting 
the  natural  strength  of  the  position.  Two  thousand  citi- 
zens of  the  best  families,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  and  a 
thousand  skilled  mechanics,  with  seven  thousand  of  the 

»  This  is  the  estimate  of  Thenius,  B.  d.  Kdnige,  p.  466. 


104 


THE   FALL   OF   JERUSALEM. 


bravest  fighting  men,  liad  been  carried  off  to  Babylon  ten 
years  before/  But  the  fall  of  the  city  was  only  a  question 
of  time.  The  besiegers  had  invested  it  on  every  side,  so 
that  no  provisions  could  enter,  and  they  had  possession  of 
the  whole  country,  far  and  near.  Lachish  and  Azekah,  in 
the  Maritime  Plain,  had  succumbed,  and  3,023  persons  of 
both  sexes  had  been  seized  and  led  off  to  Babylon.^     The 


Siege  op  a  City  bv  the  Assyrian  Armt. 

On  the  left,  soldiers  in  mail  are  throwing  down  the  wall  with  crowbars.  On  an 
upper  tower  are  women  ;  one  apparently  wailing,  the  other  encouraging  the  de- 
fenders. On  tlie  right  is  a  battering  ram  with  a  tower  over  it,  from  which  the  Assy- 
rians in  armour  shoot  from  the  level  of  the  top  of  the  wall.  The  garrison  are  throw- 
ing over  stones,  etc.,  on  soldiers  who  are  guiding  the  ram.  Archers  kneel  on  the 
ground  at  the  side  of  the  battering  ram.  The  general  and  his  attendant,  drawn  in 
large  size,  are  on  the  right ;  the  attendant  holding  a  shield  before  his  master. 

thud  of  the  battering  rams  shook  the  walls  day  and  night  ; 
archers  made  the  defence  increasingly  hard,  by  constant 
showers  of  arrows  from  high  wooden  forts  ;  catapults  of  all 
sizes  hurled  stones  into  the  town  with  a  force  as  deadly  as 
that  of  modern  bullets,  and  darts  tipped  with  fire  kindled 
the  roofs  of  houses  ;  mines  were  dug  under  the  walls,  and 
attempts  at  escalade  by  ladders  were  renewed  at  every 
favourable  opportunity. 


»  SKingsxxiv.  14-16. 


2  Jer.  lii.  28,  for  seventh  year  read  seventeenth. 


THE    FALL   OF   JERUSALEM.  105 

But  the  besieged  were  not  beliiud  in  their  resources  of 
defence.  Houses  were  demolished,  that  new  walls  might 
be  built  of  their  materials,  inside  each  spot  weakened  by 
the  battering  rams.'  The  ramparts  were  vigorously  de- 
fended by  archers  and  slingers,  equal  in  bravery  to  those 
of  the  Chaldaeans.  The  rams  were  caught,  when  possible, 
by  doubled  chains  or  ropes,  to  weaken  their  blows,  or,  if  it 
might  be,  to  capsize  them.  Lighted  torches  and  firebrands 
were  tlirown  on  their  roofs,  and  on  those  of  the  catapults, 
to  set  them  on  fire.  The  gates  of  the  town  Avere  zealously 
defended  against  the  efforts  of  the  enemy  to  burst  them 
open,  or  to  burn  them.'^  Nothing,  however,  could  prevent 
the  final  catastrophe.  Famine  within  the  walls  aided  the 
besiegers  without,  and  it  was  speedily  followed,  as  is  always 
the  case,  with  an  outbreak  of  pestilence.  Food  was  well- 
nigh  gone.  There  had  long  been  no  bread. ^  Mothers 
were,  at  last,  driven  to  murder  and  eat  their  children.* 
The  richest  citizens  wandered  about  searching  for  scraj^s 
in  the  dunghills.  Effeminate  nobles,  whose  fairness  and 
personal  beauty  had  been  their  pride,  were  reduced  to 
black-faced  ghosts  by  hunger.  To  make  matters  worse, 
feuds  broke  out  in  the  city.  Some  were  for  surrender, 
others  for  holding  out  to  the  last,  and  every  street  became 
a  battle-field.' 

Yet,  amidst  the  roar  of  war,  the  wail  of  mourners,  the 
shrieks  of  the  wounded  and  the  despairing,  and  the  tumult 
of  intestine  strife,  Jeremiah  never  lost  his  self-possession, 
though  forced  to  sit  helpless  in  the  midst  of  so  much  dan- 
ger and  privation.     His  deliverance  from  the  cistern  prison, 

>  Jer.  xxxiii.4. 

'  For  this  description  of  a  Clialdsean  eiege,  see  Layard's  Nineveh^  Tol.  ii.  pp.  367, li 

•  Jer.  xxxvii.  21  ;  xxxviii.  9 ;  Hi.  6.    Ezek.  v.  10. 

*  Baruch  11. 3.    Lam.  iv.  la  *  Lam.  iv.  13-lS. 


106  THE   FALL   OF   JERUSALEM 

in  which,  according  to  Josephus,  the  mire  had  reached  up 
to  his  neck/  had  put  him  under  lasting  obligation  to  the 
black  eunuch  who  had  rescued  him.  He  was  now,  more- 
over, free  to  move  about  in  the  court  of  the  watch,  to 
which  Ebed-melech  frequently  came,  in  passing  out  of 
the  palace,  and  he  repaid  his  kindness  by  cheering  words, 
telling  him  that  God  would  preserve  him  amidst  all  the 
dangers  around,  as  a  return  for  the  favour  shewn  to  His 
servant. 

"XXXIX.  16.  Tims  saith  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  the  God  of  Israel  (said 
he),  Behold  I  will  bring  My  words  upon  this  city  for  evil  and  not  for 
good,  and  they  shall  be  accomplished  in  that  day,  before  thee,  17. 
But  I  will  save  thee,  in  that  day,  saith  Jehovah;  and  thou  shalt  not 
be  given  into  the  hand  of  the  men  whom  thou  fearest.  18.  For  I  will 
surely  deliver  thee,  and  thou  shalt  not  fall  by  the  sword,  but  thy  life 
shall  be  for  booty  to  thee,  because  thou  hast  trusted  in  Me,  saith 
Jehovah. "  '^ 

At  last  came  the  end.  The  siege  had  lasted  within 
a  day  or  two  of  eighteen  months,'  but  a  practicable 
breach  now  invited  the  stormers.  Waiting  for  the  cover 
of  darkness,  the  Chaldaean  force  detached  for  this  service 
moved  out  of  their  camp  towards  midnight,  on  the  ninth 
of  the  month  Tammuz,  nearly  our  July,  and,  after  a  fierce 
struggle,  Jerusalem  was  in  their  hands.  Marching  in  by 
the  Middle  Gate  of  the  inner  wall,  dividing  Mount  Zion 
from  the  Lower  City,  their  generals  took  up  their  quarters 
near  it,"  as  a  point  from  which  both  the  Upper  and  Lower 
City  could  be  most  easily  controlled.  The  names  and  titles 
of  some  of  them  still  survive;  the  latter,  by  their  high 
rank,  implying  a  large  force  to  have  been  engaged,  and 
thus   shewing   the  desperateness   of   the    defence.      Fore- 

»  Jos,,  Ant.^  X.  vil.  4.  >  Jer.  xxxix.  16-18. 

»  Jer.  lii.  4,    Comp.  with  Jer,  xxxix.  1 ;  lii,  6.  •  Jor.  xxxix,  3, 


THE   FALL   OF   JERUSALEM.  107 

most,  amidst  a  brilliant  cavalcade,  rode  Nergal  Sharezer 
— ''Nergal,  protect  the  king  \"  the  name  of  a  former 
monarch  of  Babylon  ;  Samgar-Nebo — ''  May  Nebo  be  pro- 
pitious ; "'  Sarsechim,  one  of  the  two  chief  eunuchs ;  * 
a  second  Nergal  Sharezer,  the  chief  of  the  royal  magi, 
or  '^deeply  learned;^"  Nebuzaradan — ^^Nebo,  grant  me 
children  " — the  commander  of  the  body-guard  '  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar ;  and  Nebushartan — ^'  Nebo,  deliver  me  !  " — the 
second  chief  of  the  eunuchs.^ 

The  shout  of  the  conquerors  was  the  signal  to  Zede- 
kiah  that  all  was  lost.  Only  flight  could  save  him.  The 
breach  had  been  made  in  the  north  wall,  where  alone 
close  access  to  the  fortifications  was  possible,  and  the 
Hill  of  Zion,  on  which  the  palace  stood,  was  not  yet  in  the 
hands  of  the  Chaldaeans.  The  south  gate,  close  to  the 
royal  gardens,  was  still  available.  It  lay  at  the  south- 
east corner  of  the  city,  between  the  inner  wall  and  that 
which  ran  across  from  the  Tyropoeon  valley  to  Ophel, 
joining  that  spot  to  Mount  Zion,  and  was  known  as  the 
Horse  Gate.'*  If  Zedekiah,  and  the  fugitives  who  might 
escape  with  him — many  of  them  deeply  compromised 
in  the  revolt — could  reach  Gilead,  they  might  be  safe. 
They  therefore  made  for  the  Arabah,^  south  of  the  Dead 
Sea,  striking  across  the  wild  stretches  of  the  wilderness 
of  Judah,  to  the  south-east.  But  flight  in  that  direction 
proving  impossible  in  the  darkness,  they  turned  towards 
the  plain  of  the  Jordan,  north  of  their  intended  route. 
Meanwhile,  the  alarm  was  given,  that  the  king  and  a 
strong  band  of  men  had  broken  through  the   Chaldaean 

»  Rabsaris  means  this  also. 

'  The  guard  that  stood  before  Nebuchadnezzar.    Jer.  lii.  12. 

»  For  the  meaning  of  the  names,  see  Schrader,  Keilinschriften,  pp.  273-276. 

4  Keil.    Neh.  lii.  5J8.    Jer.  lii.  7.  *  Jer,  lii.  7.    Deut.  i.  1. 


108 


THE   FALL  OF  JERUSALEM. 


outposts,  on  the  south-east  of  Jerusalem,  and  instant 
pursuit  was  ordered.  The  steep  pass  of  the  Kidron  forth- 
with swarmed  with  troops  pushing  down  towards  Jericho, 
with  only  too  fatal  haste.     Before  the  panic-stricken  fugi- 


The  Assyrian  King  blinding  a  Manacled  and  Fettered  Prisoner,  who  with 

THE  TWO  OTHERS   IS   FURTHER   SECURED   BY   A   MeTAL  RiNG   THROUGH   THE   LiP, 


tives  could  cross  the  Jordan,  they  were  overtaken,  and 
the  mere  approach  of  the  enemy  was  enough.  Zedekiah 
was  instantly  deserted,  and,  witli  a  number  of  his  chief 
men,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  23ursuers.'  His  daughters, 
who  may  not  have  been  with  him,  were,  however,  fortu- 
nate enough  to  escape,  but  only  to  fall  into  the  hands 
of  one  Ishmael,  a  member  of  the  royal  family,  soon  to 
prove  an  arch  traitor. 

J  Jer.  xxxix.  5  :  lii.  8. 


THE   FALL   OF   JERUSALEM.  109 

Thrown  into  chains  at  once^  the  captive  king  was  led 
back  to  Jerusalem,  and  sent  on,  thence,  to  Riblah,  ten 
days'  journey  to  the  north — for  it  stood  about  thirty-five 
milea  north  of  Baalbek.  There,  Nebuchadnezzar  awaited 
him.  Brought  before  the  Great  King,  with  the  other 
captives,  he  was  met  with  a  storm  of  only  too  well-deserved 
reproach,  for  his  broken  oath,  and  soon  found  that  he 
could  expect  no  mercy.  All  the  princes  taken  with  him 
were  at  once  ordered  to  be  slain.  Then,  with  a  refinement 
of  cruelty,  his  own  sons  were  put  to  death  before  him — ■ 
the  last  sight  he  was  ever  to  behold ;  for  a  spear,  thrust 
into  his  eyes,  most  probably  by  Nebuchadnezzar  himself, 
presently  blinded  him  for  ever.  Arminius  Vambery 
describes  a  scene,  at  Khiva,  which  must  have  been  the 
counterpart  to  that  at  Riblah.  '^I  found  about  a  hundred 
horsemen,"  says  he,  in  *^the  public  square,  who  had  just 
arrived  from  the  camp,  covered  with  dust,  each  of  them 
leading  a  couple  of  prisoners,  amongst  whom  Avere  women 
and  children,  all,  alike,  tied  either  to  the  horses'  tails 
or  to  the  saddle  bows ;  each  horseman  bringing  with  him, 
also,  a  sack,  which  was  thrown  across  the  saddle.  As  soon 
as  they  arrived,  each  of  them  handed  over  the  prisoners  he 
had  brought  with  him,  as  a  present  to  the  Khan,  or  some 
other  grandee  of  tlie  land.  Theii  they  removed  the  sacks 
from  the  saddles,  and  taking  hold  of  the  two  sides  of  the 
one  end,  spilled  their  contents  on  the  ground,  as  one  does 
with  potatoes.  But  these  were  human  heads,  the  heads  of 
slaughtered  enemies,  which  were  rolling  at  the  feet  of  the 
official  who  wrote  down  their  number.  He  first  carefully 
counted  the  heads  brought  by  each  horseman,  and  then 
gave  a  receipt  for  them  ;  the  servant,  meanwhile,  kicking 
them   into  a  heap.     The   horsemen  galloped   away    with 


110  THE   FALL  OF   JERUSALEM. 

their  receipts,  which  were  drafts  on  the  treasurer  for  their 
respective  rewards,  in  the  shape  of  robes  of  honour,  for 
four,  twenty,  or  forty  heads. 

''  There  were  three  hundred  prisoners  of  war  in  the  third 
courtyard — all  covered  with  rags,  and  looking,  from  their 
fear  of  death,  and  the  starving  they  had  undergone,  for 
days  past,  like  dead  men  risen  from  their  graves.  They 
were  already  divided  into  two  groups,  those  under  forty 
years  of  age,  who  were  fit  to  be  sold  as  slaves,  or  to  be 
passed  into  slavery  as  presents  to  great  men  ;  and  those 
who,  from  their  position  or  age,  were  regarded  as  chieftains 
or  leaders.  Those  of  the  first  class  were  led  away  by  their 
escorts,  in  bands  of  fifteen,  tied  to  each  other  by  iron 
collars.  Part  of  the  second  group  were  sent  to  the  block, 
or  to  the  gallows,  but  eight  of  them,  of  an  advanced  age, 
lay  down  on  their  backs,  at  a  hint  from  the  executioner. 
In  this  situation  their  hands  and  feet  were  tied,  and  he, 
kneeling  on  their  chests,  and  stabbing  the  eyes  of  each  of 
them  with  a  sharp  knife,  deprived  them,  in  turn,  of  their 
eyesight.  After  he  had  accomplished  his  cruel  task,  he 
wiped  his  bloody  knife  on  the  gray  beard  of  one  of  his 
victims.  It  was  a  dreadful  sight  to  see  these  miserable 
people,  after  the  fetters  had  been  removed  from  their 
hands  and  feet,  in  their  groping  attempts  to  rise  from  the 
ground.  Some  knocked  their  heads  against  each  other, 
others  sank  to  the  ground  from  sheer  exhaustion,  moaning, 
and  beating  the  ground  with  their  feet  in  their  agony.  I 
shall  think  with  horror  of  this  scene,  as  long  as  I  live.''  * 

In  the  unchanging  East,  the  circumstances  which  must 
have  accompanied  the  vengeance  taken  on  Zedekiah  and 

»  Vambery's  Life,  207-8.    The  "  heaps  of  heads  '♦  remind  us  of  those  of  the  headi 
of  Ahab's  sons,  thrown  down  before  Jehu. 


THE   FALL   OF   JERUSALEM.  Ill 

his  fellow-prisoners,  could  not  be  more  vividly  painted. 
But  this  was  only  the  beginning  of  his  humiliation. 
Chained  hand  and  foot,  with  a  ring  through  his  lips  as  if 
he  were  a  wild  beast,  he  was  put  into  a  cage,  and  carried 
off  to  Babylon,  to  lie  in  a  dungeon  till  death  put  an  end  to 
his  sufferings.*  How  long  he  survived  is  unknown,  bat  he 
was  apparently  dead  when  Jehoiachin,  his  predecessor, 
was  freed  by  Evil  Merodach,  the  successor  of  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, twenty-six  years  from  this  time.'*  Three  kings  of 
Judah  were  now  captives  in  the  hands  of  their  enemies — 
Jehoahaz  in  Egypt,  and  two  others  in  Babylon.  The  sins 
of  the  nation  had  been  heavily  punished  ;  but  it  was  to  be 
purified  by  these  trials,  and  fitted  for  the  great  work  still 
before  it,  in  preparing  the  way  for  Christianity.  Such 
multiplied  calamities  sank  into  the  heart  of  the  race. 
Future  generations  forgot  the  weakness  of  Zedekiah,  as 
they  forgot  the  faults  of  his  royal  companions  in  misery, 
and  thought  of  him  only  as  gentle  and  righteous.^  A  fast 
is  still  held  on  the  10th  day  of  the  5th  month  to  bewail  his 
fall. 

The  Temple  and  the  Upper  Town  held  out,  after  the 
Lower  City  had  fallen,  and  detained  the  Chaldaeans  for 
another  month.  Not  till  then  did  the  townspeople  yield, 
when  utterly  overpowered.  The  Temple  was  defended  to 
the  very  last,  the  bravest  of  the  warriors  left,  perishing 
vainly  in  its  courts.  All  classes,  indeed,  fought  with  des- 
peration. Young  men  and  women,  veterans  past  their 
prime,  and  not  a  few  who  were  stooping  with  years,  fell 
with  their  faces  to  the  hated  foe.*  The  storming  of  a 
town,  or,  indeed,  any  of  the  wild  and  infamous  scenes  of 
war,  have  in  all  ages  been  the  same. 

»  Bzek.  xix.  9.       ^  Jer.  lii.  31.         '  Job.,  Ant.,  X.  vii.  5.       «  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  17. 


112  THE   FALL   OF   JEEUSALEM. 

"The  gates  of  mercy,  tlien,  are  all  shut  up, 
And  the  flesh'd  soldier,  rough  and  hard  of  heart, 
Ranges,  in  liberty  of  bloody  hand, 
With  conscience  wide  as  hell."  * 

But,  at  last^  all  resistance  was  crushed,  and  Jerusalem  lay 
at  the  mercy  of  Nebuchadnezzar. 

The  defence  had,  however,  been  too  resolute,  the  rebel- 
lion too  troublesome,  to  leave  any  hope  of  pity.  Such  a 
focus  of  revolt  must  be  ruthlessly  destroyed.  The  town 
was  given  up,  therefore,  to  plunder,  and  then  burnt ;  the 
mansions  of  the  rich  and  the  lowly  dwellings  of  the  poor, 
sharing  the  same  fate.'*  The  walls,  moreover,  were  levelled 
with  the  ground.^  Nebuzaradan  had  been  left  in  com- 
mand, and  he  had  no  mercy.  The  last  month's  defence 
had  infuriated  him.  The  worst  calamity  that  could  over- 
take a  nation  in  antiquity  was  inflicted  on  the  conquered  ; 
their  temple  was  burnt  to  the  ground,  and  the  remnant  of 
the  gan-ison,  and  of  the  inhabitants  of  both  sexes, — those, 
perhaps,  excepted,  who,  like  Jeremiah,  had  belonged  to  the" 
party  counselling  submission  to  Nebuchadnezzar — carried 
off  to  the  Chaldaean  camp  to  await  their  doom.  Every- 
thing worth  taking  had  been  brought  out  of  the  sanctuary 
before  it  was  set  on  fire;  the  metal  work  of  all  kinds, 
which  was  of  too  great  an  amount  to  weigh,  and  the  sacred 
utensils  ;  some  of  them  from  Solomon^s  time,  forming  the 
special  booty."  The  poorer  classes,  in  town  and  country, 
were  contemptuously  left  undisturbed  ;  only  those  whom  it 
seemed  worth  deporting,  as  slaves  or  for  the  harem,  be- 
ing, apparently,  carried  off.  Hence,  besides  those  who 
had  escaped  beyond  the  reach  of  the  enemy,  and  waited 

»  Henry  V.  »  Jer.  xxxix.  8 ;  lii.  10.  3  Jer.  lii.  14. 

4  2  Kings  XXV.  13-17.    Jer.  lii.  17-23. 


THE   FALL   OF   JERUSALEM.  113 

tlieir  departure  to  return,  a  large  proportion  of  the  peas- 
antry remained,  to  keep  the  land  from  reverting  to  deso- 
lation. The  immediate  appointment  of  a  Jewish  governor 
over  them,  shews  their  numbers  to  have  been  considerable. 
The  Great  King,  while  determined  to  crush  all  rebellion, 
had  no  desire  to  turn  one  of  his  provinces  into  a  wilder- 
ness.* 

The  campaign  over,  Nebuchadnezzar  set  up  his  throne 
of  Judgment.  Marched  to  Kiblah,  the  final  crowd  of 
prisoners  were  brought  before  him.  Among  these  were 
Seraiah,  the  higli  2)riest,  grandfather  or  great-grandfather 
of  Ezra  ;*  Zephaniah,  his  deputy,'  whom  we  have  more  than 
once  met  in  the  story  of  Jeremiah^s  life  ;^  the  keepers  of 
the  temple  gates,  who  were  dignified  priests,*  next  in  rank 
to  Zephaniah  ;  the  commandant  of  the  garrison,  who  had 
held  out  for  a  month  after  the  fall  of  the  Lower  Town  ; 
seven  of  the  confidential  advisers  of  Zedekiah,  members  of 
the  oligarchy  who  had  forced  him  to  his  ruin  ;  the  chief 
scribe  of  the  local  militia,  from  which  all  fighting  men 
were  drawn — an  officer  like  our  adjutant-general  ;  and, 
with  them,  sixty  survivors  of  the  gallant  band  which  had 
fought  to  the  last.*  All  these  were  at  once  put  to  death. 
The  rest  were  added  to  the  long  train  of  earlier  captives, 
and  marched  off  to  Babylon.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
siege,  as  has  been  said,  3,023  persons  had  been  seized  and 
led  away  to  the  Euphrates  ;  during  its  progress  832  had 
been  added  to  the  number  ;  but  how  many  were  taken  at 
the  fall  of  the  city  is  not  told.  All  its  sufferings,  however, 
had  not  finally  crushed  the  spirit  of  the  nation  ;  for  it  was 

»  2  Kings  XXV.  12.    Jur.  xxxix.  10  ;  lii.  16. 

2  Ezravii.  1.    1  Chron.  vi.  14.    Ewald,  vol.  iii.  p.  807.    Jer.  lii.  24. 
»  Jer.  xxi.  1  ;  xxix.  25  ;  xxxvii.  3.  *  Jer.  lii.  24. 

•  2  Kings  XXV.  18-21.    Jer.  lii.  24-27. 
VOL.  VI.-8 


114  THE   FALL  OF  JERUSALEM. 

found  expedient,  four  years  later,  to  carry  off  745  prisoners, 
in  addition  to  all  deported  before.' 

In  the  midst  of  these  overwhelming  disasters,  Jeremiah 
remained  not  only  unharmed,  but  protected.  He  had, 
long  before,  prophesied  the  ultimate  downfall  of  Babylon,'' 
but  this  was  not  known.  His  services,  in  counselling  sur- 
render to  the  Chaldaeans,  on  the  contrary,  must  have  been 
in  all  mouths.  Orders  were  therefore  issued  by  the  Great 
King,  himself,  to  see  that  he  was  cared  for.  Set  free  from 
the  court  of  the  guard,  he  was  given  into  the  care  of  Geda- 
liah,  a  prominent  member  of  the  Chaldaean  party  in  Jeru- 
salem, who  had  been  left  in  the  country  to  govern  it,  for 
Nebuchadnezzar.  Under  his  protection  the  prophet  re- 
tired to  Anathoth,  and  lived  quietly  among  the  remnant  of 
the  inhabitants.' 

J  Jer.  Hi.  28-30.  The  temple  was  burned  in  the  nineteenth  year  of  Nebuchadnez- 
zar. 2  Kings  XXV.  8.  The  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  years  must  therefore  have 
been  the  first  and  second  of  the  siege. 

2  I  have  assumed  that  the  prophecies  of  Jeremiah  against  Babylon  were  uttered 
before  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  but,  perhaps,  they  may  have  been  given  forth  in  Egypt, 
when  the  prophet  was  beyond  the  arm  of  the  Great  King.  In  any  case  Babylon  was 
in  its  glory  when  its  doom  was  thus  predicted. 

'  Jer.  xxxix.  11-14. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


THE 


The  survivors  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  left  in 
Judali  after  the  banishment  of  their  fellow-countrymen  to 
the  Euphrates,  seemed,  for  the  time,  overwhelmed  by 
the  calamities  that  had  befallen  their  nation.  The  Tem- 
ple they  had  thought  invulnerable,  was  burnt  to  the 
ground  ;  Jerusalem,  in  which  they  had  gloried  as  '^the  joy 
of  the  whole  earth,''  was  a  Avaste  of  blackened  ruins.  The 
town  gates  seemed  to  have  sunk  into  the  ground  ;  ^  the 
roads,  once  thronged,  lay  untravelled  ;  no  groups  of  citi- 
zens discussed  gossip  or  business  ;  even  the  walls  were 
thrown  down,  and  jackals  haunted  the  Sacred  Hill !  ^ 

That  such  crushing  disaster  should  have  found  varied 
expression  in  the  verses  of  contemporary  poets  was  in  keep- 
ing with  the  genius  of  the  race.  For  ages  past,  every  great 
event  in  their  national  history,  whether  glorious  or  sorrow- 
ful, had  been  commemorated  in  lyrics,  handed  down  from 
generation  to  generation.  The  defeat  of  Pharaoh,  the  tri- 
umph over  Sisera,  the  death  of  Saul  and  Jonathan,  the 
overthrow  of  the  Northern  Kingdom,  and  the  destruction 
of  the  army  of  Sennacherib,  had  been  sung  in  poems 
known  to  every  Hebrew  child.  So,  now,  was  it  to  be  with 
the  crowning  catastrophe  of  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  carrying 
with  it,  as  it  did,  the  temporary  extinction  of  the  Jewish 

>  Lam.  a.  9.  »  Lam.  ii.  8  ;  i.  4  ;  v.  18. 


116  THE    ''LAMENTATIONS       OF   JEREMIAH. 

State.  The  seventy-nintli  Psalm  ^  seems  to  i:>reserve  to  us 
such  an  outburst  of  religious  and  patriotic  emotion ;  a  wail, 
one  might  say,  from  the  bleeding  bosom  of  the  nation  ! 

*LXXIX,  1.  Elohim!  the  heathen  have  thrust  themselves  into  Thy 

inheritance ; 
They  have   defiled   Thy  holy  temple!     They  have  laid  Jerusalem  in 

ruins! 

2.  They  have  given  the  corpses  of  Thy  servants  as  food  to  the  birds  of 

heaven ; 
The  flesh  of  Thy  Hasidim^  to  the  wild  beasts  of  the  earth! 

3.  They  have  poured  out  their  blood  like  water  round  Jerusalem,  and 

no  one  buried  them ! 

4.  We  have  become  a  reproach  among  our  neighbours, 
A  scorn  and  derision  to  them  that  are  round  about  us. 

**  5.  How  long,  Jehovah,  wilt  Thou  be  angry  ?    Forever  ?    Will  Thy 
wrath  burn  thus,  fire-like,  (for  evermore)  ? 

6.  Pour  out  Thy  wrath  on  the  heathen,  who  do  not  know  Thee  ; 
On  the  kingdoms  that  do  not  call  upon  Thy  name  ! 

7.  For  they  have  devoured  Jacob:  they  have  laid  waste  his  pastures, 

8.  Oh,  remember  not  against  us  the  sins  of  our  forefathers  ; 

Let  Thy  tender  mercies  speedily  come  to  us,  for  we  are  brought  very 
low  I 

"  9.  Help  us,  0  God  of  our  salvation,  for  the  honour  of  Thy  name  I 

Save  us  and  forgive  ^  our  sins,  for  Thy  name's  sake. 

10.  Why  should  the  heathen  say,  '  Where  is  their  god  ? ' 

May  the  revenge  of  the  blood  of  Tliy  servants,  which  has  been  shed, 

Be  made  known  among  the  heathen,  before  our  eyes  ! 

"11.  Let  the  groans  of  those  lying  in  chains  come  before  Thee  ; 
According  to  the  greatness  of  Thy  might*  preserve  Thou  those   ap- 
pointed to  die  ;  6 

'  Delitzsch  assigns  Ps.  Ixxiv.  and  Ixxix.  to  the  time  of  Antiochns,  2  Mace.  viii.  1-4 
(c.  B.C.  167) .  Moll  thinks  Ps.  Ixxix.  refers  to  the  destruction  of  the  Temple,  b.c,  588.  So 
also  does  Dr.  Kay.  The  fact  is,  the  dates  of  the  Psalms  in  most  cases  are  conjectural. 
Cheyne  thinks  them  Maccabean,  and,  indeed,  there  seems  little  doubt  of  their  being 
eo,  but  they  suit  the  time  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  destruction  of  the  city,  no  less  than  a 
later  age.  '  =  afterwards,  to  "  Zealots." 

'  Literally,  "  cover  "—then  "  forgive  " — "accept  an  expiation  for,"  etc. 

-  Literally,  "  arm."  ^  Literally,  "  sons  of  death." 


THE    ''lamentations"   OF   JEREMIAH.  117 

12.  And  render  back  to  our  neighbours,  sevenfold,  into  their  bosom,* 
Their  reproach,  with  which  they  have  reproached  Thee,  0  Lord  ! 

13.  So  we.  Thy  people,  and  the  flock  of  Thy  pasture, 

Will  thank  Thee  for  ever,  and  will  speak  forth  Thy  praise  to  all  gen- 
erations !  " 

The  eighty-third  Psalm  may  also  be  a  remembrance  of 
this  sad  time.'^  It  specially  dwells  on  the  hostility  shewn 
to  Judah  by  tlie  neighbouring  peoples,  who  should  have 
helped  her  in  her  straits.  Instead  of  doing  this,  they  had 
joined  the  enemy  against  her. 

"LXXXIII.  1.  Elohim  !  give  Thyself  no  rest  :  be  not  silent  :  be  not 
still,  0  El  ! 

2.  For,  lo,  thine  enemies  rage  loudly ;  they  that  hate  Thee  carry  their 

heads  high  ! 

3.  They  have  planned  crafty  schemes  against  Thy  people  ; 

They  have  consulted  together  against  those  who  are  under  Thy  protec- 
tion: 

4.  They  say,  '  Up  !  let  us  destroy  them  from  among  the  nations, 
That  the  name  of  Israel  be  no  more  remembered  ! ' 

"5.  For  with  one  heart  have  they  consulted  together;  they  have  made 
a  league  against  Thee. 

6.  The  tents  of  Edom  and  of  the  Ishmaelites ;  of  Moab  and  the  Haga- 

renes ; ' 

7.  Gebal,  and  Ammon,  and  Amalek  ;  Philistia  with  the  inhabitants  of 

Tyre  : 

8.  Geshur,*  also,  has  joined  itself  to  them  :  it  has  lent  its  arm  to  the 

sons  of  Lot. 

"9.  Do  to  them  as  Thou  didst  to  Midian ; 

As  to  Sisera,  as  to  Jabin,  at  the  torrent-stream  Kishon  ;  * 

>  Vol.  V.  p.  347.    Ps.  Ixxix.  12,  13 ;  Ixxxiii.  1-9. 

2  It  has  been  assigned  by  different  critics  to  the  Maccabean  age,  that  of  Nehemiah, 
that  of  Jehoshaphat,  and  that  of  Nebuchadnezzar.  It  appears  to  suit  the  last  period 
as  well  as  any  other,  though  the  mention  of  Amalek,  unless  introduced  by  the  license 
of  poetry,  seems  to  hint  at  an  earlier  date. 

3  These  races  were  all  more  or  less  tent  dwellers,  living  in  the  regions  south  and 
east  of  Judah. 

*  Lagarde.  The  Hebrew  has  Assyria,  but  a  very  small  change  is  required  for  the 
emendation  in  the  text.  *  Judg.  v.  21. 


118  THE    '' LAMENTATION^S  "  OF   JEREMIAH. 

10.  They  were  destroyed  at  Endor,'  they  lay  like  filth  on  the  ground. 

11.  Make  their  nobles  like  Oreb  and  Zeeb ;  ^ 
All  their  princes  like  Zebah  and  Zalmunna,^ 

12.  Who  said,  in  their  day,  '  Let  us  take  possession  of  the  pastures  of 
Elohim!'* 

*'13.  My  God,  make  them  like  whirling  dust ;  like  stubble  before  the 
wind  ! 

14.  As  fire  burns  the  yaar,  as  flame  kindles  the  mountain  forests, 

15.  So  chase  them  with  Thy  storm ;  overwhelm  them  with  Thy  tem- 
pest ! 

16.  Fill  their  faces  with  shame,  that  they  may  seek  Thy  face,  O  Jeho- 
vah; 

Let  them  be  confounded  and  overwhelmed  for  ever ; 

17.  Let  them  be  put  to  shame  ^  and  perish,  that  they  may  know 

18.  That  Thou — whose  name  is  Jehovah;  that  Thou,  alone, 
Art  the  Highest  over  all  the  earth  !  " 

It  is,  however,  in  the  short  series  of  elegiac  poems,  known 
in  our  English  Bible  as  ''  The  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah,'* 
that  we  realize  the  intensity  of  the  sufferings  which  Jeru- 
salem had  to  endure  before  its  fall,  and  the  bitterness  and 
sorrow  with  which  its  citizens  lamented  its  fate.  In  the 
Hebrew  text  no  author  of  these  compositions  is  named,  but 
a  very  old  tradition  ascribes  them  to  Jeremiah.  Already, 
in  the  Septuagint  translation,  made  in  the  second  and  third 
centuries  before  Christ,  the  statement  is  prefixed  to  the 
Book,  that  "  It  came  to  pass,  after  Israel  was  taken  cap- 
tive, and  Jerusalem  made  desolate,  Jeremiah  sat  weeping, 
and  lamented  this  Lamentation  over  Jerusalem, '^  and  to 
this  the  Vulgate "  adds,  ''  in  bitterness  of  heart,  sigh- 
ing and  crying. ''  The  Arabic  version  quotes  the  words  of 
the  Septuagint,  and  the  Targum  begins  with  the  statement 
that   '^^  Jeremiah  the  prophet  and  great  priesf  was  the 

J  Near  Tabor.    Judg.  v,  19.    Ps.  Ixxxiii.  10-18.  '  Judg.  vii.  25. 

»  Judg.  viii.  5.  *  Pastures  or  "  homesteads  "  of  Elohiiu. 

*  Literally,  "grow  red.**  •  Fourth  century  after  Christ. 


THE   ''lamentations''   OF   JEREMIAH.  119 

autlior.  It  is  only  in  recent  times  that  critics  have  ques- 
tioned the  uniform  belief  of  the  Jewish  and  early  Christian 
Church,  and  ascribed  the  Lamentations  to  some  other 
author.*  Nothing  that  is  urged,  however,  need  shake  our 
confidence  in  these  touching  laments  being  the  production 
of  the  great  prophet.  Near  the  Damascus  gate,  on  the 
north  side  of  Jerusalem,  a  '^  grotto,"  which,  in  reality, 
is  an  old  quarry,  is  still  shewn,  as  the  spot  where  he  is 
fancied  to  have  composed  them,  but  it  is  clear  that  the 
rock,  at  one  time,  extended  to  the  city  wall.  In  fact,  as 
said,  it  is  an  ancient  quarry,  created  by  the  stone  having 
been  slowly  cleared  away,  from  outside  the  city  gate,  till 
the  excavation  pierced  a  hundred  feet  into  the  knoll 
still  rising,  in  a  long,  low  swell,  over  it.  There  are  vast 
cisterns  under  the  ''  grotto,"  the  roof  of  the  largest  borne 
up  by  square  pillars  of  stone,  and  both  the  roof  and  sides 
plastered  over,  to  make  them  water-tight.  The  water  in 
this  tank  is  excellent,  and  in  great  quantit}',  having  a 
depth  of  forty  feet ;  the  reservoir  thus  affording  a  good 
illustration  of  the  labour  expended  to  collect  surface  water, 
where  springs  are  so  scarce.  Before  the  cave  is  a  garden, 
planted  with  fruit  trees,  and  separated  from  the  road  by  a 
low  stone  wall.  In  this  garden  a  range  of  stone  mangers 
was  found,  in  1873,  dating  from  the  time  of  the  Crusaders, 
and  shewing  that  the  old  Hostelry  of  the  Templars  once 
stood  on  this  spot.    A  Mohammedan  family  has  a  cottage  in 

>  Ewald  suppose?  Lamentations  was  written  by  Barnch,  or  some  other  of  Jere- 
miah's disciples,  and  Bunsen  follows  him  as  he  does  generally.  Naegelsbach  thinks 
that  Jeremiah  was  not  the  author.  Thenius  fancies  that  different  poets  wrote  differ- 
ent chapters.  This  Reuss  opposes,  ascribing  the  Book  to  some  unknown  composer. 
But  the  grounds  of  this  scepticism  as  to  Jeremiah's  authorship  seem  slight  when 
closely  examined.  Nor  is  it  a  matter  of  any  serious  moment  who  was  the  inspired 
author.  The  Book  dates  from  immediately  after  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  whoever 
wrote  It.    The  question  is  carious,  but  of  no  real  practical  weight. 


120  THE    ''lamentations"   OF   JEREMIAH. 

the  mouth  of  the  grotto,  and  the  top  of  the  knoll,  above, 
is  a  Mohammedan  burial-ground,  so  that  the  family  live 
below  the  graves.  The  spot  is  interesting  in  many  ways, 
for,  according  to  Rabbinical  tradition,  its  old  Jewish  name 
was  ''The  House  of  Stoning,"  so  that  it  is,  very  probably, 
the  place  where  the  first  martyr  Stephen  met  his  death. 
Still  more,  the  knoll  is  remarkably  like  a  skull  in  shape," 
and  has  been  thought,  on  this,  among  other  grounds,  the 
veritable  Calvary  on  wliicli  our  Lord  was  crucified.  I 
clambered  up  to  the  graveyard,  and  found  the  ground 
thick  with  weeds,  and  entirely  neglected,  but,  as  I  stood 
on  it,  I  noticed  that  the  road  to  the  north  passed  so  close 
below,  that  a  great  multitude  might  have  crowded  on  it,  or 
near  it,  in  full  view  of  the  three  crosses,  if  this  were  the 
scene  of  the  Redeemer's  death.  Any  one,  moreover,  might 
speak,  from  the  road,  to  the  sufferers,  or  mock  and  taunt 
them,  if,  like  the  chief  priests  and  the  rabble,  they  were 
inclined  to  do  so. '  But  whether  this  tradition  respecting 
the  "  grotto '^  be  correct  or  not,  the  "Lamentations'' 
shew,  in  every  verse,  the  signs  of  fresh  and  irrepressible 
sorrow,  as  if  the  scene  still  lay  beneath  the  eyes  of  the 
poet,  and  the  events  commemorated  were  still  agitating 
the  heart.  Nor  is  it  any  valid  objection  that  the  form  of 
the  different  poems  of  which  the  book  consists  appears 
artificial.  The  first,  second,  third,  and  fourth  chapters  are 
written  in  verses,  each  of  which  commences  with  the  suc- 
cessive letters  of  the  Hebrew  alphabet,  the  third  chapter 
consisting  of  verses  of  three  lines,  each  beginning  with  the 
same  letter,  while  the  order  of  two  of  the  letters  is  reversed 
in  the  second,  third,  and  fourth. '^     The  fifth,  though  not 

1  There  are  other  grounds  for  thinking  this  knoll  is  really  Calvary,  but  I  reserve 
Uiem  for  their  more  fitting  place,  in  my  volume  of  "  Hours  "  on  the  Gospels. 

2  The  letters  Pe  and  Ayin  (^  and  y). 


THE    '' LAMENTATION'S       OF   JEREMIAH. 


121 


alphabetical,  is  composed  in  twenty-two  verses^,  the  num- 
ber of  letters  in  the  Hebrew  alphabet.  But  no  one  ever 
thouglit  of  challenging  the  authorship  of  a  hymn,  because 
the  versification  was  peculiar.  As  a  help  to  memory,  the 
alphabetical  structure  may  have  been  of  great  use  ;  or  it 
may  have  been  chosen  as  best  suited  for  a  theme  deserving. 


Wailing  Place  at  the  Walls  of  the  Temple,  Jerusalem. 

above  all  others,  to  be  enshrined  in  a  measure  apparently 
esteemed  in  the  writer's  day. 

The  ''  Lamentations ''are  still  read  yearly  by  the  Jews, 
to  commemorate  the  burning  of  the  Temple.  Every  Fri- 
day, Israelites,  old  and  young,  of  both  sexes,  gather  at  the 
*'  Wailing  Place  "  in  Jerusalem,  near  the  south-west  corner 
of  the  Old  Temple  grounds,  where  an  ancient  wall,  52 
yards  in  length,  and  bfj  feet  in  height,  is  still  revered 
as  a  memorial  of  the  sanctuary  of  the  race.     Nine  courses 


123  THE   '^  LAMEKTATIO^rS  ^'  OF   JEKEMIAH. 

of  huge  stones,  one  16  feet  long,  another  13,  are  crowned 
hy  15  rows  of  stones  of  smaller  size,  but  what  is  above 
ground  is  little  to  what  is  buried,  for  70  feet  of  rubbish  lie 
heaped  over  the  ancient  surface,  at  the  spot  where  the 
mourners  gather.  It  may  be,  that  some  stones  of  the 
Temple  destroyed  by  the  Ohaldaeans  still  remain  in  their 
places,  but  they  must  be  buried  deep,  under  the  wreck  of 
the  second  and  third  temple,  especially  the  third,  thrown 
down  by  the  Romans,  when  the  ancient  city  finally  per- 
ished. It  is  a  touching  sight,  nevertheless,  to  watch  the 
line  of  Jews  of  many  nations,  in  their  black  gaberdines,  as 
a  sign  of  grief,  lamenting  aloud  the  ruin  of  that  House 
whose  very  memory  is  still  so  dear  to  their  race,  and 
reciting  the  sad  verses  of  **  Lamentations/'  and  suitable 
Psalms,  amidst  tears,  as  they  fervently  kiss  the  stones.  On 
the  ninth  of  the  month  Ab,  nearly  our  July,  this  dirge, 
composed  about  six  hundred  years  before  Christ,  is  read 
aloud  in  every  synagogue  over  the  world. 

The  first  poem  describes  the  miseries  of  Jerusalem  and 
Judah  during  and  after  the  siege. 

"I.  1.  Ah,  how  she  sits  there,  lonely, Uhe  town  once  so  rich  in  people;' 
How  is  she  who  was  great  among  the  nations  become  like  a  widow! 
The  queen  of  the  lands '  around — how  has  she  become  a  poor  slave  I 

2.  Bitterly  weeps  she  by  night — tears  hang  on  her  cheeks, 
None  has  she  to  comfort  her  of  all  those  who  loved  her ; 
All  her  friends  have  betrayed  her  and  turned  to  be  her  foes. 

3.  Gone  into  exile  is  Judah — worn  down  by  sorrow  and  slavery,* 
Finding  no  rest  where  she  now  sits  among  the  heathen. 


»  Emptied  of  her  inhabitants.    Lam.  i.  1-3. 

'  Liam.  i.  The  dark  type  shews  the  succession  of  the  letters  of  the  Hebrew 
alphabet  in  the  verses. 

'  Literally,  "  provinces,"  perhaps  in  allusion  to  the  other  provinces  of  Babylon, 
or  to  the  former  empire  of  Israel. 

*  Her  long  sufferings  at  the  hands  of  Assyria,  Egypt,  and  Chaldoea. 


THE  *^' LAMENTATIONS  ^'  OF  JEREMIAH.       123 

All  her  pursuers  came  up  with  her  (the  hunted  hind),  when  her  way 
closed  in  before  her. ' 

4.  Desolate,  the  roads  to  Zion  mourn;  no  throngs  now  come  to  her 

feasts ; 
All  her  gates  are  desolate ;  her  priests  sigh ; 
Her  maidens  are  led  away,'  and  she  herself  is  in  bitterness; 

5.  Her  ^  foes  have  become  her  masters :  her  enemies  enjoy  quiet  pros- 

perity, 
For  Jehovah  has  sunk  her  in  trouble  for  her  many  transgressions. 
Her  children  are  led  away  captive  by  the  oppressor. 

6.  Vanished  from  the  Daughter  of  Zion  is  all  her  glory; 
Her  princes  are  come  to  be  like  deer  that  find  no  pasture,* 

So  that  they  fled,  no  longer  swiftly  strong,  before  their  pursuers. 

7.  Zion  ^  thinks  sadly  of  the  days  of  her  misery  and  forced  wanderings, 
Of  all  her  pleasant  things  that  she  had  in  the  old  days, 

Before  her  people  fell  into  the  hand  of  the  adversary,  and  she  had  no 

helper. 
The  oppressors  saw  her,  and  mocked  at  her  calamities." 

8.  Heinously  has  Jerusalem  sinned ;  therefore  has  she  become  an  ab- 

horrence. 
All  who  once  honoured,  despise  her,  for  they  have  seen  her  shame ; 
She,  herself,  also  sighs,  and  turns  away  her  face.'' 

9.  Tainted  and  foul  are  her  skirts,  for  she  had  not  thought  of  the 

sure  end  of  her  sins," 
Therefore  she  sank  thus  wondrously,  and  has  no  one  to  comfort  her : 
'  See,  O  Jehovah, '  cries  she,   '  my  sorrow ;  how  proudly  the  foe  deals 

with  me.' 

10.  Yea,  he  stretched  out  his  hand  over  all  her  ancient  treasures. 
She  has  seen  the  heathen  enter  her  sanctuary;  ^ 

Them,  whom  Thou  hast  commanded  never  to  come  into  the  congrega- 
tion. 

11.  Craving  for  bread,  all  her  people  wearily  sigh; 

'  Literally,  "  between  the  straits,"  or  narrows,  from  which  escape  was  impossible. 
Iiam.  i.  4-11. 

2  Septuagint  by  a  slight  change  of  the  Hebrew.  The  rendering  "  afflicted,"  in  the 
A.  v.,  from  the  Hebrew,  if  right,  may  refer  to  their  no  longer  having  a  share  in  the 
religious  festivities.    Exod.  xv.  20.    Judg.  xxi.  19-21.    Ps.  Ixviii.  25. 

'  Soft  H.  *  A  reference,  perhaps,  to  the  flight  of  Zedekiah  and  others. 

'  Hebrew,  Jerusalem.  ®  Not,  at  her  "  Sabbaths." 

'  Literally,  "turns  backwards."  *  Dent,  xxxii.  29. 

•  The  Ammonites,  Moabite;?,  and  Edomites,  as  part  of  the  besieging  army,  had 
entered  even  the  Holy  of  Holies  for  plunder.    Deut.  xxiii.  3,  4.    Ps.  Ixxix. 


124  THE    "  LAMEN-TATIOKS  "   OF   JEREMIAH. 

They  gave  tlieir  dearest  things  away  for  food,  to  keep  them  alive.* 
*See,  Jehovah,  and  behold,  how  I,  (Jerusalem,)  am  despised  I' 

**  12.  Little,  seems  it  to  you,  all  ye  passers  by  the  way  ?  ^    Behold  and  see. 

Is  any  sorrow  like  that  inflicted  on  me, 

Me,  whom  Jehovah  has  troubled  in  the  day  of  His  fiery  wrath? 

13.  My  bones  hath  he  filled  with  fire  from  on  high;  it  glows  through 
them.' 

He  has  spread  a  net  for  my  feet ;  He  has  driven  me  *  .into  it  (like  a 

hunted  deer). 
He  has  made  me  desolate,  and  sick  at  heart  all  the  day. 

14.  Now  is  the  yoke  of  my  sins  bound  on  me  by  Plis  hand ; 

Twisted  into  strong  bonds,  they  are  come  on  my  neck;  He  has  bowed 

down  my  strength; 
Jehovah  has  given  me  into  their  hands,  before  whom  I  cannot  resist. 

15.  Slighted  ^  by  Jehovah  have  been  all  my  mighty  men  in  my  midst; 
A  solemn  feast  was  proclaimed  against  me — to  crush  my  young  braves  ; 
Jehovah  has  trodden,  as  in  a  wine-press,  the  virgin  daughter  of  Judah, 

16.  At  ®  these  things  my  eyes  weep — my  eyes,  running  with  tears. 
For  they  who  should  comfort  me,  they  who  should  quicken  me  to  life 

again,  are  far  from  me. 
My  children  are  in  consternation,  for  the  foe  has  prevailed! 

17.  Pleading  hands  are  stretched  out  by  Zion,  yet  has  she  no  comforter. 
Jehovah  has  commanded  that  those  round  Jacob'  should  be  his  foes; 
Jerusalem  has  become  a  loathing  among  them. 

"  18.   '  Truly  •*  Jehovah  is  only  righteous,  for  I  have  rebelled  against 

His  word ; 
Hear,  therefore,  all  ye  nations,  and  behold  my  sorrow. 
My  maidens  and  my  young  men  are  gone  into  ca})tivity. 

19.  Coldly  did  my  lovers  betray  me  when  I  called  to  thera; 
IMy  priests  and  my  elders  perished  of  hunger  in  the  city. 
Seeking  for  food  to  bring  back  their  life. 

20.  Rise  and  behold,  0  Jehovah,  how  deep  is  my  grief;  my  soul  ^  glows 
within  me. 

i  Literally,  "  to  bring  back  their  life."  '  Lam.  i.  12-20. 

3  Ewald,  by  an  emendation. 

'^  Literally,  "  turned  me  back  into  it  when  I  was  trying  to  escape." 

6  Thus,  Qesenius  and  De  Wette.    "  Surrendered,"  "  given  up,"  Keil  and  Ewald. 

®  A  for  Ayin  in  the  Hebrew  alphabet.    We  have  no  letter  exactly  similar. 

">  The  nations  round  Judah.  8  Tj^g  rp  gt^ould  be  Ts. 

®  Literally,  "  my  inner  parts." 


THE    '' LAMENTATIONS  "'   OF   JEREMIAH.  125 

My  lieart  beats  quick  '  in  my  bosom,  for  I  have  greatly  rebelled; 
The  sword  makes  me  childless  without ;  within,  there  is  death. 

21.  Sighing'*  aloud  '  1  have  no  comforter,'  my  trouble  is  heard; 

All  my   foes  have  learned  of   my  sorrow;   they   are  glad   Thou   hast 

caused  it; 
But  Thou  bringest  on  the  day  Thou  hast  foretold,  when  they  will  be  as 

I  am. 

22.  To  Thy  throne  rise  all  their  wickedness! 

Do  to  them  what  tliey  have  done  to  me,  for  all  my  transgressions; 
For  many  are  my  sighs,  and  my  heart  is  faint.'" 

A  lament  over  the  Divine  judgments  on  the  city,  and 
the  desolation  of  Jndah,  and  a  touching  supplication  on 
their  behalf^,  succeed. 

**II.  1.  Ah!  how  has  Jehovah  covered  tlie  Daughter  of  Zion  with  His 

anger,  like  a  cloud ! 
He  has  cast  down  the  glory  of  Israel  from  heaven  to  the  earth. 
And  has  not  remembered  His  footstool  in  the  day  of  His  wrath! 

2.  (Blasted  and)  destroyed  are  all  the  homesteads  of  Jacob  by  Jeho- 

vah, nor  has  He  pitied  them: 
He  has  thrown  down,  in  His  wrath,  the  strongholds  of  the  Daughter  of 

Judah ; 
He  has  cast  them  to  the  ground ;  He  has  dishonoured  the  kingdom  and 

its  princes. 

3.  Grimly  fierce,  He  has  cut  off  every  horn  ^  of  Israel  ; 
He  has  drawn  back  His  right  hand  before  the  enemy, 

And  burned  up  Jacob,  like  flaming  fire  that  consumes  all  round  it. 

4.  Drawn  has  He  His  bow,  like  an  enemy;  standing  (to  aim)  with  his 

right  hand,  like  a  foe  ; 
And  has  slain  all  that  was  pleasant  to  the  eye; 
He  has  poured  out  His  fury  like  fire  in  the  tent  of  the  Daughter  of  Zion. 

5.  He,  Jehovah,  has  become  like  a  foe:  He  has  destroyed  Israel; 
Destroyed  all  her  castles;  broken  down  all  her  strongholds, 
And  heaped  up  groans  and  sighs  on  the  Daughter  of  Judah. 

G.  Violently  has  He  destroyed  His  Temple  *  (in  its  sacred  grove),  as 
if  it  had  been  a  common  garden ;  He  has  destroyed  the  place  of 
His  Feasts. 

*  Literally,  "turns,"  "isgreutly  moved."    Lam.  i.  21-22  ;  ii.  1-6. 
2  Should  be  Sh.  ^  Every  means  of  defence. 

*  Literally,  "  Tent,"  or  "  covert." 


126  THE    '■^  LAMENTATIOI^S  "   OF   JEREMIAH. 

Jehovah  has  caused  feasts  '  and  Sabbaths  to  be  forgotten  in  Zion. 
And  rejected  in  His  fierce  anger  both  king  and  priest. 

7.  (Zealous  against  us),    Jehovah   has  cast  aside  His  altar;   He  has 

profaned  His  sanctuary ; 
He  has  given  the  walls  of  her  castles  into  the  hand  of  the  foe. 
They  raised  a  wild  noise  in  the  House  of  Jehovah,  as  if  it  had  been  one 

of  our  festivals ! 

8.  (He),  Jehovah,  had  purposed  to  level  the  wall  of  the  Daughter  of 

Zion: 
He  stretched  out  the  measuring  line :  He  did  not  hold  back  His  hand 

from  destroying. 
He  made  rampart  and  wall  to  lament — sunk  in  ruins  together. 

9.  (Torn  down  or  burnt),  her  gates  have,  (as  it  were),  sunk  into  the 

ground;  He  has  destroyed  and  broken  her  bars. 
Her  king  and  her  princes  are  among  the  heathen;  the  Law  is  no  more. 
Even  her  prophets  obtain  no  longer  a  vision  from  Jehovah. 

10.  In  silence,  the  elders  of  the  Daughter  of  Zion  sit  on  tlie  ground ; 
They  have  cast  dust  on  their  heads ;  they  are  girded  witli  sackcloth ; 
The  virgins  of  Jerusalem  have  sunk  their  heads  to  the  earth. 

11.  Closed  by  much  weeping,  my  eyes  fail;  my  whole  body  glows; 
My  liver  is  poured  on  the  earth,  at  the  destruction  of  the  Daughter  of 

my  people, 
For  the  children  and  sucklings  perish  for  hunger  in  the  streets  of  the 
city; 

12.  Lying  in  the  streets  of  the  city,  dying,  like  the  mortally  wounded, 
They  cry  to  their  mothers,  '  Where  is  the  corn  and  wine?'  ^ 

Their  souls  breathing  themselves  out,   meanwhile,  on  their  mother's 
bosom. 

"  13.  (Maiden)  daughter  of  Jerusalem !  what  (message  of  comfort)  shall 

I  give  thee?  to  what  shall  I  liken  thee? 
What  shall  I  compare  to  thee,  for  thy  consolation,  0  virgin  daughter 

of  Zion? 
Thy  trouble  ^  is  great  as  a  sea;  who  can  heal  thee? 
14.  Nothing  but  lies  and  deceit  *  have  thy  false  prophets  spoken  to  thee ; 
They  have  not  laid  open  thy  sin,  to  prevent  thy  being  led  into  cap' 

tivity ; 
They  prophesied  to  thee  only  false  *  burdens,'  deceitful  and  ruinous. 

*  "  Appointed  seasons."    Liam.  ii.  7-14. 

a  These  two  represent  food  and  drink  generally. 
>  Literally,  "  breach,"  or  wound." 

*  Literally,  "  whitewash,"  "  plaster,"  *'  pretence.'* 


THE    "lamentations''    OF    JEREMIAH.  127 

"  15.  Still,  as  men  pass  by,  all  clap  their  hands  together  at  thee  in 

scorn ; ' 
They  hiss,  and  shake  their  heads  at  the  Daughter  of  Jerusalem. 
'Is   this   the   city,'   say   they,    'that   men   call    "The   Perfection   of 

Beauty,"  "  The  Joy  of  the  whole  earth  "?' 
16.  (Pleased  2   at  thy  fall)  thine  enemies  open  their  mouths  wide  at 

thee; 
Hissing  (in  contempt)  and  gnashing  their  teeth  (in  rage),  they  say,  '  We 

have  destroyed  her! 
This  is  the  day  for  which  we  hoped — now  we  have  found  and  seen  it! ' 

"17.  All  that  Jehovah  had  determined  has  He  done; 

He  has  fulfilled  His  word,  ordered  in  days  of  old — He  has  destroyed 

without  pity; 
He  has  let  the  foe  rejoice  over  thee ;  he  has  raised  the  horn  of  thine 

oppressors. 

18.  Their  ^  heart  cried  (in  sorrow)  to  Jehovah! 

Let  thy  tears  flow  down  day  and  night  like  a  stream,*  0  wall  of  the 

Daughter  of  Zion ! 
Give  thyself  no  rest;  *  let  not  the  apple  of  thine  eye  cease  weeping! 

19.  Cry  out  in  the  night,  rising  up;  in  the  beginning  of  the  watches® 
Pour  out  thy  heart  like  water  before  the  face  of  the  Lord ; 

Lift  up  thy  hands  to  Him,  for  the  life  of  thy  children. 
That  perish  for  hunger  at  every  corner  of  the  streets. 

20.  Regard,  0  Jehovah,  and  behold,  to  whom  hast  Thou  thus  done  ! 
Shall  women  eat  the  fruit  of  their  womb — the  babes  of  their  nursing? 
Shall  the  priest  and  the  prophet  lie  slain  in  the  sanctuary  of  the  Lord? 

21.  Shall  the  boy  and  the  gray-haired  man  lie  dead  on  the  ground  in 
the  streets  ? 

My  virgins  and  my  young  men  have  fallen  by  the  sword; 
Slain  by  Thee  in  the  day  of  Thy  wrath,  slain  without  pity! 

22.  Thou  callest  ray  terrors  round  me,  like  the  crowds  on  the  day  of 
a  feast ; 

None  of  my  children  escaped  or  could  flee,  in  the  day  of  the  wrath  of 

Jehovah ; 
Those  I  had  nursed  and  brought  up  has  my  foe  destroyed." 

>  Lam.  ii.  15-22. 

2  In  the  2d,  3d,  and  4th  chapters  the  Hebrew  letter  Pe  comes  before  Ayin. 
'  T  should  be  Ts.  *  A  mountain  rain-torrent. 

*  In  prayer.     Literally,  "  grow  not  cold." 

«  In  the  beginning  of  each  watch.    In  Jeremiah's  time  there  were  three  night 
watches  of  four  hours  each.    Exod.  xiv.  24,    Ps.  Ixiii.  6. 


128  THE    '' LAMENTATIOXS       OE    JEIIEMIAH. 

Now  follows  a  touching  2:)oem/  It  is  written  in  verses  of 
three  lines,  each  verse  beginning  in  all  its  lines  with  the 
same  letter  ;  and  the  successive  verses  following  the  Hebrew 
alphabet  in  regular  order — perhaps  to  impress  the  poem 
more  easily  on  the  memory.  It  is  put  in  the  mouth  of  an 
imaginary  singer — a  survivor  of  the  siege. 

"  III.   1.  Alas  !  I  am  the  man  who  has  seen  aifliciion  by  the  rod  of 
His  wrath ! 

2.  Alas!     He  has  gnided  and  led  me  through  darkness— not  through 
light! 

3.  Against  Me  has  He  turned,  again  and  again,  His  liand,  all  the  day 
long; 

4.  Bruised 2  has  He  my  flesh  and  my  skin;  He  has  broken  my  bones; 

5.  Built  up,  round  about  me,  poison  and  travail, 

6.  Brought  me  into  darkness,  like  the  long  dead! 

7.  Girded  me  round  has  He,  with  a  wall,  that  I  cannot  get  out,  He  has 
made  my  chain  heavy. 

8.  Gives  no  ear  to  my  prayer  when  I  cry  and  call. 

9.  Girded  round  my  paths  with  a  wall  of  s(]uared  stones ;  He  breaks 
up  my  paths. 

10.  Dread  is  He  to  me  as  a  bear,  or  a  lion  hidden  in  secret. 

11.  Dumb  with  terror  has  He  made  me;  driving  me  from  my  ways, 
and  letting  the  wild  beasts  tear  me  in  pieces. 

12.  Drawing  His  bow,  He  has  set  me  as  a  mark  for  the  arrow. 

13.  He  has  let  the  sons  of  His  quiver "  pierce  into  my  loins.* 

14.  Held  in  derision  am  I  by  all  my  people :  their  scoff  all  the  day. 

15.  He  has  filled  me  with  bitterness  and  made  me  drink  wormwood. 

16.  "With  gravel  stones  has  he  broken  my  teeth ;   He  has  strewn  me 
with  ashes. 

17.  Withheld  has  He,  my  soul,  from  peace:  I  have  forgotten  pros- 
perity. 

18.  Withered  for  ever,  said  I,    is  my  strength,  and  my  hope  from 
Jehovah, 

"  19.  Set^  before  Thee  my  affliction  and  my  misery;  the  wormwood 
and  the  poison ; 

*  Lam.  iii.  1-19.  '  Literallj%  "  rubbed  away." 

3  i.e.,  arrows.  •*  Literally,  "  kidneys." 

'>  Here  and  in  the  next  two  lines  the  first  letter  should  be  Z.     "  Set  before  "  is 
used  as  =  "  remember." 


THE    '^  lamentations"   OF   JEREMIAH.  129 

20.  Set  before  my  soul  are  tliey ;  it  is  bowed  down  within  me ;  ' 

21.  Seeing  therefore  1  thus  keep  them  before  me,  I  will  hope  (for  God's 
mercy)." 

Now  follow  words  of  contrition  and  hope. 

"22.  Wholly'  of  Jehovah's  mercy  is  it   that  we  are  not  consumed, 
because  His  compassions  fail  not. 

23.  (His  mercies)  are  new  every  morning;  great  is  Thy  faithfulness. 

24.  He,  Jehovah,  is  my  portion,  says  my  soul :  therefore  will  I  hope  in 
Him. 

25.  To  those  who  cling  to  Him,  Jehovah  is  good:  to  the  soul  that  seeks 
Him; 

26.  To  work  patiently  for  the  salvation  of  Jehovah  is  good; 

27.  To  bear  the  yoke  (of  trouble)  in  his  youth  is  good  for  a  man. 

28.  If  Jehovah  bow  him  with  sorrows,  let  him  sit  alone  in  silence; 

29.  If,  perchance,  there  be  hope,  let  him  kiss  the  dust  meekly; 

30.  If  even  it  bring  reproach,  let  him  give  his  cheek  to  the  smitcr. 

31.  Cast  off  the  Lord  may,  but  not  for  ever! 

33.  Cause  grief  He  may,  but  He  also  pities,  in  the  multitude  of  His 

mercies. 
33.  Contrary  to  His  heart  is  it  to  afflict  or  to  grieve  the  children  of 

men. 

"34.  Lord  !  to  tread  in  pieces  under  one's  feet  all  the  prisoners  of 
the  earth — 

35.  Lord !  to  turn  aside  the  right  of  a  man  in  his  dispute  before  the 
face  of  the  Most  High — 

36.  Lord!  to  defraud  a  man  in  his  cause — is  not  pleasing  to  Thee!  "  ^ 

Having  uttered  these  words  of  submission  and  hope,  the 
prophet  breaks  out  afresh  into  expressions  of  suffering;  his 
grief  being  still  irrepressible,  notwithstanding  his  trust  in 
the  justice  and  goodness  of  (rod.  All  things  are  in  His 
hands.  Evil  as  well  as  good  is  by  His  appointment  :  the 
former  coming  on  man  for  his  sin ;  the  latter,  as  the  gift  of 
heavenly  bounty.     But  amidst  all  the  trials  of  his  country, 

J  Lam.  iii.  90-36.  ^  Wh  should  be  H. 

3  I  have  changed  the  i)er(?on  in  this  verse  from  the  third  to  the  second,  to  meet 
the  exigencies  of  the  alphabetical  structure. 
VOL.  VI.-9 


130  THE    "lamentations''   OF   JEREMIAH. 

the  Throne  of  Grace  is  ever  open  ;  to  that  let  the  mourners 
humbly  repair  !  Nor  let  them  complain  if  they  receive 
chastening  from  the  Lord  ;  the  just  punishment  of  their 
offences  ! 

"37.  Man  never  was,  who  could  speak,  and  it  came  to  pass,  if  the  Lord 
had  not  commanded ;  ' 

38.  Must  not  evil  as  well  as  good  proceed  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  Most 
High? 

39.  Man,   left  alive,  must  not  sigh,  but  reform;  for  why  sigh  over 
deserved  punishment  of  one's  sins  ? 

40.  No,  let  us,  rather,  prove  and  search  our  ways,  and  turn  to  Jehovah ! 

41.  Not  only  our  hands,  bnt  our  hearts,  also,  be  lifted  up  to  God  in 
the  heavens! 

42.  Not  one  of  us  but  has  sinned  or  rebelled,  and  Thou  hast  not  par- 
doned. 

43.  Sore  offended.  Thou  hast  put  on  wrath,  like  a  garment,  and  pun- 
ished us ;  slaying  us  without  pity. 

44.  Supplication  cannot  pass  through  to  Thee,  for  Thou  hast  hid  Thy- 
self in  a  thick  cloud. 

45.  Sordid  offscourings  and  refuse  hast  Thou  made  us,  in  the  midst  of 
the  nations. 

46.  (Proudly)  have  all  our  enemies  opened  their  mouths  at  us. 

47.  Panic  alarm,  and  the  pit  of  destruction, ^  have  we  round  us,  devas- 
tation and  ruin. 

48.  Pouring  down  from   my  eyes,   flow  streams  of  tears,   for    the 
destruction  of  the  daughter  of  my  people. 

49.  Always,  without  intermission ;  tears  trickle  down  without  ceasing ; 

50.  Always,  till  Jehovah  look  down  and  behold  us,  from  heaven. 

51.  At  the  thought  of  all  the  daughters  of  my  city  my  eye  troubles  my 
heart." 

The  prophet  here  interrupts  the  narrative  of  the  sorrows 
of  his  people,  by  recalling  his  own  sufferings  at  their 
hands. 

"52.  Terribly^   have  my  enemies  hunted  me  without  cause,  like  a 
bird. 

•  Iiam.  iii.  37-52.  '  In  which  wild  animals  are  taken. 

*  T  should  in  this  and  the  two  following  lines  be  Ts. 


THE    "  LAMENTATIONS  "    OF   JEREMIAH.  131 

53.  They  tried  to  cut  off  ray  life  in  a  pit'  and  put  a  stone  on  its 
mouth.  2 

54.  The  waters  flowed  over  my  head,  so  that  I  thought,  '  I  am  lost.' 

55.  Calling  on  Thy  name,  0  Jehovah,  I  cried  out  of  the  depth  '  of  the 
cistern : 

50.   *  Close  not  thine  ear  to  my  voice,  to  my  sighing,  to  my  cry.' 

57.  Come  near,   didst  Thou,   in  the   day  when  I   called,  and  saidst, 

'  Fear  thou  not.' 

58.  (Righteous)  Lord,  Thou  didst  defend  my  life;  *  Thou  didst  save  it! 

59.  Regarded  hast  Thou,  0  Jehovah,  my  wrongful  treatment — judge 
Thou  my  cause  ! 

60.  Revenge  taken  on  me  by  them,  Thou  sawest  it  all.;  and  all  that 
they  plotted  against  me  ! 

61.  Shame  cast  on  me  by  them,  Thou  didst  hear,  O  Jehovah;  all  that 
they  plotted  against  me ! 

62.  Sayings  of  those  that  rose  up  against  me,  and  their  murmured 
schemes  for  my  hurt,  all  the  day. 

63.  See,  at  their  sitting  down  together  and  their  rising  up,  I  am  their 
scoff. 

64.  Take  vengeance  on  them,  0  Jehovah,  according  to  the  works  of 
their  hands; 

65.  Their  heart,  do  thou  blind  it  ^ — let  Thy  curse  rest  upon  them  ; 

66.  Turn  on  them  and  destroy  them,  in  wrath,  from  under  the  heavens 
of  Jehovah  !  " 

These  three  laments  not  having  calmed  the  emotion  of 
the  prophet  at  the  remembrance  of  the  awful  sufferings 
of  his  people,  he  adds  a  fourth,  in  which  the  miseries 
endured  in  the  siege  are  painted  in  the  most  touching 
detail.  Comparing  the  citizens  to  fine  gold  and  to  the 
stones  of  the  sanctuary,"  he  bewails  their  fate  under  the 
figure  of  the  dimming  of  the  one  and  the  throwing  down 
of  the  other. 

»  The  fame  word  as  that  for  the  pit  or  cistern  in  which  Jeremiah  was  confined. 
Lam.  iii.  53-66. 

2  A  reference,  apparently,  to  the  putting  the  heavy  stone  lid  over  the  cistern  in 
which  Jeremiah  was  imprisoned.    Jer.  xxxviii.  6. 

3  Literally,  "  lowest  depths."  *  Literally,  "  plead  the  suit  for  my  life." 
*  Literally,  "  cover ;  "  hence,  "  blind."       «  Zech.  ix.  16. 


132  THE' 

"IV.  1.  Ah  !  how  is  the  gold  grown  dull! '  the  finest  gold  changed! 
How  are  the  holy  stones  thrown  down,  at  every  corner  of  the  streets.'^ 

2.  Burghers  of  Zion,  the  noblest;  men  to  be  weighed  against  finest 

gold, 
Ah  !    how   they  are  treated   as   if  they  were   common   earthenware 
pitchers,  the  work  of  a  potter's  hands  ! 

3.  (Gaunt)  she-wolves'   offer  the  breast  to  their  young  and  suckle 

them; 
But  the  daughter  of  my  people  has  grown  heartless  as  the  ostrich  in 
the  wilderness,  (which  forsakes  its  young  wlien  alarmed  by  the 
hunter)/ 

' '  4.  Dried  up  by  thirst,  the  tongue  of  the  suckling  cleaves  to  the  roof 

of  its  mouth ; 
The  young  children  asked  bread;  no  one  breaks  it  to  them. 

5.  Hollow-cheeked,  those  wont  to  eat  dainties  wander  in  the  streets, 
Those  brought  up  wearing  scarlet,  are  glad  to  make  dunghills  their 

couch. 

6.  Worse  is  the  punishment  of  the  sin  of  the  daughter  of  my  people, 

than  that  of  the  sin  of  Sodom : 
It  was  destroyed  in  a  moment ;  the  hands  of  the  foe  did  not  rest  on 
her  (as  on  us). 

7.  Zion's  princes  shone  white  as  snow ;  they  were  whiter  than  milk ; 
They  were  more  ruddy  in  body  than  corals ;  their  form  was  lovely  as 

that  of  a  well-cut  sapphire. 

8.  (Hideous  now!),  their  faces  blacker  than  darkness  (witli  famine), 

they  are  not  recognized  in  the  streets ; 
Their  skin  cleaves  to  their  bones ;  it  is  dried  up  like  wood. 

9.  Those  slain  with  the  sword  are  better  off  than  their  neighbours, 

that  perish  of  hunger ! 
For  these  die,  gnawed  through  by  famine,  for  want  of  the  fruits  of  the 
field. 

10.  Infants,  and  these  their  own,  have  been  boiled  by  mothers,  till 
then  full  of  pity. 

Such  babes  were  their  food,  in  the  downfall  of  the  daughter  of  my 
people." 

Jerusalem  has  been  utterly  destroyed. 

'  Lam.  iv.  1-10.  ^  Lam.  ii,  19. 

=•  See  note  on  the  word  "tannin,"  vol.  v.  p.  43.    It  means  really  any  fierce  beast,  oi 
monster  ;  here,  nearly  all  understand  "  the  she-wolf  "  to  be  intended. 
*  Tristram,  p.  238. 


THE   ''  LAiMENTATlONS  "   OF   JEREMIAH.  133 

•*11.  Carried  out  to  (he  uttermost  by  Jehovah  is  Eis  fury;  He  has 
poured  forth  His  burning  wrath,' 

And  kindled  a  fire  in  Zion  that  has  devoured  even  its  foundations. 

12.  Little  would  the  kings  of  the  earth,  or  the  inhabitants  of  the 
world  -  have  thought, 

That  the  foe  and  the  oppressor  would  enter  into  the  gates  of  Jerusa- 
lem!"* 

The  sins  of  the  prophets  and  priests  were  the  great  cause 
of  the  fall  of  the  city.  A  strong  faction,  led  by  members 
of  these  orders,  confident  in  the  speedy  return  of  their 
brethren  from  exile,  had  raised  fierce  tumults  during  the 
siege,  to  prevent  surrender  ;  many  citizens  jDcrishing  in 
the  contests  thus  excited. 

**  13.  Mainly  for  the  sins  of  her  prophets  and  for  the  iniquities  of  her 

priests, 
Who  shed  the  blood  of  the  just  in  her  midst,*  (has  this  catastrophe 

come  on  her). 

14.  Numbers  of  them  wandered  blindly  through  the  streets,  soiled 
with  blood, 

So  that  no  one  could  touch  their  clothing. 

15.  'Stand  back!'  men  cried  out  to  them,  'ye  unclean!'  'stand 
back!  stand  back!  Touch  us  not!'*  Yet  they  strove,'  and 
roamed  about,  saying, 

*  The  exiles  will  not  sojourn  long  among  the  heathen.' 

IG.  (Proud  ones),  the  glance  of  Jehovah  scattered  them:  He  no  longer 

paid  respect  to  them :  and  so 
The  citizens  regarded  not  the  faces  of  priests,  and  had  no  reverence 

for  the  Elders. 

'  Lam.  iv.  11-16.  '  An  Oriental  hyperbole  for  "any  one." 

'  The  Jews  thought  their  capital  impregnable,  in  spite  of  its  having  been  re- 

poatcdly  spoiled  by  enemies.    Perhaps  the  defeat  of  Sennacherib  led  to  this  fancy  ; 

but  the  belief  that  Jehovah  would  defend  it  as  "His  seat,"  the  locality  of  His 

Temple,  was  undoubtedly  the  main  ground  of  confidence  in  its  security. 

♦  Jer.  vi.  U ;  xxiii.  11  ;  xxvi.  8  ;  etc. 

6  They  were  warned  off  like  lepers.  Lev.  xiii.  45.  They  should  have  raised  the  cry, 
but  not  doing  so,  the  people  raised  it.  This  verse  shews  that  the  law  of  the  leper, 
in  Leviticus,  was  then  well  known. 

*  The  Hebrew  word  used  here  may  be  derived  from  a  verb  meaning  "  to  strive,' 
as  well  as  from  one  meaning  "  to  flee  away,"  and  the  sense  seems  much  better. 


134  THE    ''  LAMENTATIONS  '^   OF   JEREMIAH. 

17.  As  for  us,  (the  besieged),  our  eyes  pined  away,  looking  in  vain  foi 
help,  (from  Egypt  or  elsewhere),  * 

Our  weary  watching  has  all  been  for  a  nation  that  could  not  help  us! 

18.  The  foe  (from  their  siege  works)  kept  their  eyes  on  our  very  foot- 
steps, so  tliat  we  could  not  walk  in  the  streets ; 

Our  end  is  near,  our  days  are  completed;  yea,  our  end  is  come! 

19.  Keener  in  their  swiftness  than  the  eagles  of  heaven  were  our  pur- 
suers ; 

They  hunted  after  us  on  the  mountains:  they  lurked  for  us  in  the 
desert. 

20.  (Royal  Zedekiah),  the  breath  of  our  nostrils,  the  Anointed  of  Jeho- 
vah, was  caught  in  their  pits,^ 

Of  whom  we  said,   '  Under  his  shadow  shall  we  live  among  the  na- 
tions.' " 

The  treacherous  part  taken  in  this  time  of  trouble  by 
Edom,  a  nation  related  to  Judah,  had  sunk  into  the  heart 
of  the  Hebrews. 

**  21.  Sing  and  be  glad,  0  daughter  of  Edom,  inhabitress  of  the  land 

of  Uz! 
But  the  cup  will  come  to  thee,  also!     Thou,  too,  shalt  be  drunk  (with 

the  shame  of  ruin) :  thou,  too,  slialt  expose  thyself  to  contempt ! 
22.  Thy  punishment'  is  over,  0  daughter  of  Zion:  Jehovah  will  no 

more  carry  thee  away  into  captivity : 
But  He  will  hereafter  visit  thee  for  thy  iniquity,*  0  daughter  of  Edom; 

He  will  lay  bare  thy  sins !  " 

The  last  poem  in  this  series  is  an  earnest  prayer  to  God 
not  to  forsake  His  people  for  ever.  The  agonies  of  the  siege, 
and  of  the  storming  of  Jerusalem,  had  been  already  painted 
in  vivid  colours,  but  they  had  so  burnt  themselves  into  the 
memory  of  the  prophet,  that  he  cannot  refrain  from  recit- 
ing them  once  more.  This  done,  however,  he  lifts  his 
voice  to  Jehovah,  the  one  sure  Help  and  Saviour,  and  closes 

>  Lam.  iv.  17-22. 

'  As  before,  a  figure  from  the  pits  in  which  wild  beasts  were  taken. 

•  Literally,  "  thy  iniquity,"  the  cause  being  put  for  the  penalty. 

*  Same  word  in  Hebrew  as  is  translated  "  punishment "  in  the  line  above. 


THE   "lamentations''   OF   JEREMIAH.  135 

his  lament  by  leaving  the  fate  of  his  nation  to  the  infinite 
pity  of  his  Heavenly  King.  The  artificial  structure  of  the 
verses,  beginning  with  successive  letters,  is  now  discon- 
tinued, but  their  number  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  letters 
of  the  Hebrew  alphabet. 

**V.  1.  Remember,  Jehovah,*  what  has  happened  tons;  behold,  and 
see  our  reproach! 

2.  Our  inheritance  is  made  over  to  foreigners,  our  houses  to  aliens. 

3.  Orphans  are  we,  without  a  father ;  our  mothers  are  as  widows. 

4.  We  drank  our  water  only  for  money ;  we  got  our  fuel  only  for  pay- 

ment. 

5.  We  were  pursued,  with  the  hand  of  the  foe  on  our  necks:  we  were 

worn  out  and  had  no  rest. 

6.  We  gave  ourselves  up*  to  the  Egyptians  and  to  the  Assyrians,  for 

enough  to  eat. 

7.  Our  fathers  sinned  and  are  not :  we  bear  the  punishment  of  their 

sins. 

8.  Slaves — (the  court  eunuchs  of  Egypt  and  Chaldaea) — have  ruled  us: 

no  one  delivers  us  out  of  their  hands. 

9.  We  reap  our  grain  ^  at  the  risk  of  our  lives,  from  the  sword  (of  the 

Arabs)  of  the  desert. 

10.  Our  skin  burns  like  an  oven  with  the  feverish  blast  of  famine. 

11.  The  women  of  Zion  were  dishonoured:  the  maidens  in  the  towns  of 
Judah. 

12.  Princes  were  hung  up  by  the  hand  (on  the  cross):  the  faces  of  the 
Elders  received  no  respect. 

13.  They  took  our  strong  young  men  to  grind  (their  mills);  our  lads 
staggered  under  loads  of  fuel. 

14.  Elders  no  longer  gathered  at  the  gate :  young  men  gave  up  their 
songs. 

15.  The   joy   of  our   hearts  has  ceased:  our  dancing  is  turned  into 
lamentation. 

16.  The  crown  of  our  head  (our  honour)  has  fallen  off:  woe  to  us  that 
we  sinned ! 

17.  For  this,  our  heart  is  faint :  for  this,  our  eyes  grow  dark — 

18.  For  Mount  Zion,  because  it  lies  waste:  the  foxes  run  over  it.' 

>  Lam.  V.  1-18.  ^  Literally,  "gave  the  hand,"  as  a  sign  of  submission. 

•  Literally,  "get  our  bread." 


136  THE    *'  LAMENTATIONS  "   OF    JEREMIAH. 

Then  follows  an  earnest  prayer. 

"19.  Thou,  Jehovah,  reigiiest  for  ever:  Thy  throne,'  from  generation 
to  generation. 

20.  Why  wilt  Thou  forget  us  for  ever?  why  wilt  Thou  forsake  ns  so 
long? 

21.  Lead  us  back  to  Thee,  0  Jehovah,  that  we  may  truly  return  to 
Thee:  renew  our  days  as  of  old! 

23.  Thou  wilt  not  surely  wholly  forget  us?    Thou  wilt  not  be  angry 
with  us  beyond  measure  ?  " 

Thus  wailed  the  genius  of  Hebrew  poetry  over  the 
desolation  of  Judali  and  Jerusalem  !  Other  cities  and 
countries  have  had  their  minstrels  to  lament  their  public 
sorrows,  but  the  national  elegies  of  the  Jew  alone  have 
spread  among  all  races  of  the  earth  and  temain  fresh  after 
twenty-five  centuries.  Nor  are  they  even  yet  without  deep 
and  practical  interest,  recording,  as  they  do,  the  catastro- 
phe that  awaits  any  community,  however  highly  favoured, 
which  forgets  that  public  and  private  righteousness,  alone, 
secures  permanent  jjrosperity. 

»  Lam.  V.  19-»2. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

EDOM    AND   THE   N^ATIOJJ^S   ROUN"D. 

The  psalms  and  laments  in  which  Judah  sighed  over  its 
national  ruin  became  sacred  among  all  the  widely-dispersed 
race,  from  their  first  appearance,  and  at  once  deepened  the 
grief  over  the  fall  of  their  country,  and  made  it  abiding. 
But  with  tearful  regret  were  mingled  other  feelings.  The 
'^delightsome  land"^  had  ceased  to  be  theirs;  in  part,  as 
we  have  seen,  through  the  treachery  of  the  communities 
round  it,  many  of  whom  were  kindred  in  blood  to  the 
sufferers.* 

Edom  had  even  sent  troops  to  assist  the  Chaldaeans  in 
the  siege,  and  these  had  shewn  a  bitter  and  remorseless 
hostility,  greater  than  that  of  the  army  they  aided.  The 
fiercest  mutual  hatred  had,  indeed,  for  centuries,  thrust 
apart  the  brother  races  of  Jacob  and  Esau.  The  refusal  of 
a  passage  through  Mount  Seir  to  the  Hebrews,  under 
Moses,  in  their  march  from  Egypt,  nine  hundred  years 
before,  had  entailed  the  long  sufferings  of  the  wilderness 
life,  and  had  never  been  forgotten.  Fierce  war  had  raged 
between  the  two  peoples  since  the  time  of  David^s  tempo- 
rary conquest  of  Edom.  Under  Joram,  Amaziah,  and 
Uzziah,  in  succession,  it  had  been  virtually  a  Jewish 
province,  till  the  reign  of  the  weak  Ahaz."     The  destruc- 

»  Ezek.  XXV.  3,  8,  12, 15  ;  xxvi.  2. 

*  2  Sam.  viii.  14.    2  Kings  viii.  20.    2  Kings  xvi.  6.    2  Cbron.  xxviiL  17. 


138  EDOM   AND   THE   NATIONS   ROUND. 

tion  of  Jerusalem,  however,  had  at  last  given  the  Edomites 
a  chance  of  revenge,  and  they  had  indulged  it  to  the  utter- 
most. More  cruel  than  the  Chaldees,  they  had  demanded 
that  the  city  should  be  razed  to  its  foundations/  After 
the  final  assault,  they  had  eagerly  helped  to  plunder  it,  and 
had  openly  rejoiced  when  the  citizens  were  carried  off  into 
slavery,  boasting  loudly  of  their  share  in  the  catastrophe." 
Still  worse ;  they  had  cut  off  the  retreat  of  such  as  had 
escaped  massacre  at  the  storming,  and  were  making  their 
way  to  the  friendly  shelter  of  Egypt.  To  destroy  these, 
they  had  beset  the  southern  roads,  killing  or  taking 
prisoner  as  many  fugitives  as  possible ;  the  captives  being 
afterwards  handed  over  as  slaves  to  the  Chaldseans.*  Nor 
had  the  depopulation  of  Jerusalem  and  Judah  contented 
them.  They  had  taken  possession  of  a  large  part  of  the 
Hebrew  territory.*  No  wonder  that,  henceforth,  an  inex- 
tinguishable hatred,  deepening  with  each  generation,  filled 
every  Jewish  bosom  at  the  very  name  of  Edom.* 

A  striking  illustration  of  this  deadly  abhorrence  of  the 
race  survives  in  the  short  prophecy  of  Obadiah,  the  briefest 
of  all  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament.  We  know  nothing 
of  the  personal  history  of  the  writer,  and  even  the  period 
at  which  the  oracle  that  bears  his  name  was  first  uttered, 
has  been  disputed.  As  in  the  case  of  Joel,  some  have  fan- 
cied him  the  earliest  of  the  prophets  ;  others,  the  latest ;  a 
lesson  enforcing  diffidence  in  historical  criticism.  That 
there  are  various  coincidences  with  Joel  may  be  seen  in 
any  reference  Bible,  and  there  are  passages  more  or  less 
parallel  with  others  in  Jeremiah."     But  we  know  how  fre- 

1  Pe.cxxxvii.  7.    Ezek.  xxxv.  11.    Lam.  iv.  21.    Jer.  xlix. 

a  Obad.  11-13.  '  Obad.  14.  *  Ezek.  xxxvi.  5. 

*  Geikie'8  Life  and  Words  of  Christ,  vol.  i.  p.  246. 

•  See  a  reference  Bible. 


EDOM   AND   THE   NATIONS    ROUND.  139 

quently  one  prophet  borrowed  from  another,  sometimes  in- 
deed from  one  whose  age  and  name  are  unknown/  and  it  is 
in  Obadiah^s  case  a  question  which  was  the  borrower.  The 
omission  of  the  name  of  the  Chaldaeans,  or  the  exile  to 
Babylon,  proves  nothing  in  so  short  a  composition,  nor  can 
much  stress  be  laid  on  the  position  of  the  book  after  Amos, 
in  the  Hebrew  Bible,  since  Canticles  stands  next  after  Job, 
and  Joel,  which  the  new  critics  allege  to  be  very  late,  is 
put  before  Amos.  The  balance  of  probability  seems 
strongly  in  favour  of  the  prophecy  having  been  uttered  by 
a  spectator  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  con- 
duct of  Edom  which  it  denounces.'  Obadiah  may  have 
been  one  of  those  carried  off  to  Babylon,  or  possibly  he 
may  have  been  a  fugitive  in  Egypt  or  in  Phoenicia ;  in 
any  case,  he  seems  to  have  been  a  later  contemporary  of 
Jeremiah. 

Apart  from  the  malignity  shewn  by  the  Edomites,  at  the 
final  crisis  of  the  Hebrew  state,  there  were  special  grudges 
between  the  two  races  on  subordinate  grounds.  The  peo- 
ple of  Mount  Seir,  always  vaunting  and  truculent,  stirred 
the  jealousy  of  their  brother-race.  They  boasted,  not 
without  reason,  of  the  wisdom  of  their  great  men,'  and 
had  all  the  insolence  of  wealth,  secured  by  the  position 
of  their  territory  in  the  route  of  commerce  from  north 


'  See  lea.  chaps  xv.  and  xvi. 

«  Obadiah  has  been  supposed  by  different  critics  to  have  lived  before  Joel,  or  under 
Joash.  Jehoram,  Uzziah,  or  Pekah  ;  some  even  assigning  him  so  late  a  date  as  b.c. 
312.  That  widely  separate  centuries  should  thus  have  been  honoured,  shews  the  utter 
uncertainty  of  the  subject.  But  the  concurrence  of  such  men  asDeWette,  Bleek, 
Rosenmiiller,  and  Ewald,  in  thinking  the  oracle  refers  to  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  under 
Nebuchadnezzar,  is  ample  vindication  for  assuming  that  it  does  so.  Keil  gives  its 
date  as  b.c.  885.  Bleek,  as  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Chaldaeane. 
The  Diet,  of  the  Bible  assigns  it  to  about  the  year  585.  Hitzig  and  Steiner  make  it 
as  late  as  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  before  Christ.  Riebm  wavers  between  B.C. 
885andB.c.  585.  >  Obad.  8. 


140  EDOM   AND  THE   NATIONS    ROUND. 

to  south.  Their  haughtiness  was,  moreover,  increased  b^ 
the  strength  of  their  position,  for  they  inhabited  the  range 
of  Seir  ;  that  is,  the  ''  rough  "  hill,  on  the  east  side  of  the 
Arabah,  or  depression  south  of  the  Dead  Sea  ;  a  region 
of  lofty  and  tangled  mountains,  which  stretches  south, 
towards  the  Red  Sea,  in  a  succession  of  wild  granite,  por- 
phyry, and  sandstone  masses,  seamed  with  countless  intri- 
cate valleys,  not  even  yet  explored.  Eising  steeply  on  the 
west,  it  sinks  gradually  into  the  desert  on  the  east.  Full  of 
caves,  the  hills  were  originally  inhabited  by  the  Horites,  or 
cave  men,  but  that  race  was  driven  out  by  the  Edomites.^ 
Selah,  the  capital,'  known  afterwards  as  Petra,  consisted 
mainly  of  dwellings  hewn  out  of  the  sandstone  of  the  defile 
in  which  it  lay  ;  the  many  rich  colours  of  the  rock  giving 
the  whole  place  great  beauty.  Its  ruins,  if  the  word  may 
be  used,  shew  si:)lendid  temples,  and  a  great  amphitheatre 
cut  out  of  the  living  rock  ;  but  these  are  of  a  compara- 
tively late  period.^  The  approach  to  it  was  by  successive 
ascents,  dangerous  and  laborious  in  the  extreme  to  an  in- 
vader, through  difficult  and  easily-defended  mountain 
passes  and  narrow  gorges,  so  that  it  was  regarded  by  its 
citizens  as  almost  beyond  the  reach  of  successful  attack. 

The  wisdom,  prosperity,  haughtiness,  and  fancied  secu- 
rity of  the  Edomites,  however,  were  doomed  to  a  terrible 
eclipse.  Josephus  tells  us^  that  Nebuchadnezzar,  some  time 
after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  turned  his  arms  against 
Moab,  Ammon,  Southern  Syria,  and  Edom,  and  utterly 
crushed  them  for  the  time,  though  Edom,  at  least,  sur- 
vived, as  a  vassal  territory,  under  the  Jews  and  Romans, 
till  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem.  Then,  at  last,  the  curse  of 
Obadiah  and  other  prophets  was  fulfilled. 

»  Deut.  ii.  12-22.  »  See  vol.  iv.  p.  417.  «  Jos.,  Ant.^^L.  iz.  7. 


EDOM    AXD   THE    XATIOXS    ROUND.  141 

The  prophecy  opens  with  an  outburst  of  rejoicing  from 
the  remnant  of  the  Hebrews,  at  the  news  that  vengeance 
was  about  to  overtake  the  race  they  so  fiercely  hated. 

*'  1.  We  heard  a  ruiuour  from  Jehovah,'  a  messenger  was  sent  among 
the  nations,  to  say — '  Up,  let  us  rise  against  Edom  in  war  ! '  3.  '  Be- 
hold,' (says  Jehovah),  '  I  will  make  thee  small  (0  Edom)  among  the  na- 
tions; thou  shalt  be  utterly  despised.  3.  The  pride  of  thy  heart  has 
deceived  thee,  thou  who  hast  thy  dwelling  in  the  clefts  of  the  rocks; 
thy  seat  on  the  mountain  heights ;  who  sayest  in  thy  heart,  '  Who  shall 
cast  me  down  to  the  ground  ?  '  4.  If  thou  wert  to  soar  as  high  as  the 
eagle,  and  to  set  thy  nest  among  the  very  stars,  I  will  hurl  thee  down 
from  thence,  says  Jehovah  ! " 

Nothing  could  resist  a  foe  whom  Jehovah  had  appointed 
as  His  instrument.  Ordinary  raids  of  plundering  tribes 
might  be  beaten  off,  with  only  a  partial  loss,  but  the  attack 
of  the  terrible  Chaldsean  would  bring  utter  ruin. 

"5.  If  a  thieving  horde  came  upon  thee,  or  night-plunderers  (at- 
tracted by  thy  wealth), ^  they  would  carry  off  only  as  much  as  satisfied 
them ;  ^  ( but,  now, )  how  utterly  art  thou  destroyed !  If  grape-gatherers 
came  on  thee,  would  they  not  leave  some  gleanings  ?  6.  (But,  now,) 
how  is  Esau  searched  through  (in  every  part) !  How  are  his  most  sacred 
chambers  ransacked  ! " 

Chaldsea  would  plunder  it  utterly,  nor  would  it  have  a 
friend  or  ally  to  help  it  in  its  distress. 

"7.  (When  thy  fugitives  flee  from  the  invader,  to  neighbouring 
friendly  states),  all  these  thy  allies  *  will  drive  them  back  again,  from 
their  borders;  the  communities  at  peace  with  thee*  will  betray  thee, 

'  Obad.  1-7.  '  Diod.,  xix.  94,  95. 

3  Eichhorn  translates  these  lines:  "If  thieves  or  midnight  robbers  came  on  thee, 
how  quietly  mightest  thou  have  awaited  them  ;  would  they  have  stolen  more  than 
they  could  carry  off?"  Jer.  xlix.  9,  from  which  the  verse  is  taken,  runs  thus  in  the 
A.  V. :  "If  grape-gatherers  come  to  thee,  would  they  not  have  some  gleaning  grapes  ? 
If  thieves  by  night,  they  will  destroy  till  they  have  enough." 

*  "  Men  of  thy  league."  •  "  Men  of  thy  peace." 


142  EDOM   AND   THE   NATION^S   ROUND. 

turning  against  thee  and  overcoming  thee;  thy  mercenaries'  will 
spread  a  snare  for  thy  feet,  but  thou  wilt  not  mark  it.*  For  thou  shalt 
have  no  understanding  left." 

The  boasted  wisdom  and  martial  spirit  of  Edom  were  to 
pass  away. 

"8.  Shall  it  not  be  in  that  day,  ^  says  Jehovah,  that  I  will  destroy 
(the  wisdom  of)  '  the  wise '  *  out  of  Edom,  and  understanding  from 
the  mountain  of  Esau?  9.  And  thy  mighty  men,  0  Teman,  shall  be 
dismayed  (by  the  want  of  counsel),  that  every  man  may  be  cut  off 
from  the  mount  of  Esau  by  the  sword,"  ^ 

Their  hostility  to  Jacob — the  Hebrew  people — has  de- 
served no  happier  fate. 

*'  10.  For  thy  wicked  dealing  towards  thy  brother  Jacob,  shame 
will  cover  thee,  and  thou  shalt  be  destroyed  for  ever.  11.  In  the  day 
when  thou  stoodest  aloof,  while  aliens  carried  away  his  substance,  and 
the  barbarian  pressed  through  his  gates  and  cast  the  lot  on  Jerusalem, 
(to  share  its  plunder  and  prisoners),  thou  wast  (like)  one  of  them.  12. 
Thou  shouldst  not  have  feasted '  thine  eyes  on  the  (evil)  day  of  thy 
brother,  the  day  of  his  calamity  ;  neither  shouldst  thou  have  rejoiced 
over  the  sons  of  Judah,  in  the  day  of  their  destruction  ;  neither 
shouldst  thou  have  opened  thy  mouth  bitterly  in  the  day  of  their  dis- 
tress. 13.  Thou  shouldst  not  have  pressed  through  the  gate  of  My 
people  in  the  day  of  their  trouble,  nor  have  feasted  thine  eyes  on  their 
misery  in  the  day  of  their  calamity,  nor  have  laid  thy  hand  on  their 
substance  in  the  day  of  their  affliction.  14.  Neither  shouldst  thou 
have  stood  at  the  crossroads,  to  kill  those  that  had  escaped  (from  the 
Chaldaean),  nor  have  given  up  the  fugitives  to  their  foe,  in  the  hour  of 
their  anguish. 

"  15.  For  the  day  of  Jehovah  is  near  for  all  nations.  As  you  have 
done,  it  shall  be  done  to  you  ;  your  work  will  be  paid  back  on  your  own 

1  The  Hebrew  has  only  "  thy  bread,"  but  "  men  of  "  seems  to  be  understood  from 
the  preceding  clause.  By  men  eating  the  bread  of  Edom,  only  mercenaries  can  be 
meant.    The  passage  is  very  obscure. 

»  Literally,  "  there  is  no  noticing  of  it."  »  Obad.  8-15. 

*  Eliphaz,  the  chief  disputant  with  Job,  was  a  Temanite,  Job  ii.  11.  Gen.  xxxvi. 
16,  34. 

*  Literally,  "by  slaughter."  •  Literally,  "  do  not." 


EDOM   AI^D   THE    NATIONS    ROUND.  143 

head  !  16.  For  as  you  (sons  of  Judah)  have  drunk '  (the  cup  of  My 
wrath),  on  My  holy  mountain,  so  shall  all  the  nations  drink  it  hence- 
forth; they  shall  drink  and  swallow  it  down,  and  be  as  if  they  had 
never  been." 

Like  all  the  other  prophets,  Obadiah  sees  light  even  in 
the  darkest  sky.  His  people  may  have  been  crushed  for 
the  time,  but  they  will,  one  day,  be  gloriously  re-estab- 
lished on  Zion. 

**17.  But  on  Mount  Zion  shall  they  gather  that  escape,  and  it 
shall  be  a  sanctuary,  and  the  house  of  Jacob  will  (once  more)  enter 
into  their  possessions.  18.  And  the  house  of  Jacob  will  be  a  fire  and 
the  house  of  Joseph  a  flame,  and  the  house  of  Esau  will  be  stubble 
(before  them),  and  they  shall  set  it  on  fire  and  consume  it  :  Jehovah 
has  spoken." 

The  Hebrews — both  Jacob  and  Joseph — Avill  be  vic- 
torious on  all  sides. 

"  19.  And  they  of  the  south  country  (the  Negeb)  will  take  possession 
of  the  mountains  of  Esau,  and  they  of  the  Shephelah  (the  hill  slopes 
over  the  maritime  plain)  will  take  the  land  of  the  Philistines  ;  and 
they  will  possess  the  hill  country  of  Ephraira,  and  the  land  of  Samaria, 
and  Benjamin  will  possess  Gilead,  (beyond  the  Jordan). 

"20.  And  the  captives  of  the  host  of  the  sons  of  Israel  (who  will 
then  have  returned),  will  take  the  land  of  the  Canaanites,  as  far  as 
Sarepta,^  and  the  captives  of  Jerusalem  who  are  at  Sepharad  ^  will 
take  possession  of  the  cities  of  the  south  country.*  21.  And  deliverers 
will  rise  up  on  Mount  Zion,  to  judge  the  mountain  of  Esau,^  and  the 
kingdom  will  be  Jehovah's. " 

1  Kleinert  and  Keil  render  this  passage  :  "  For  as  you  (Edomites),  have  held  your 
caronsings  on  My  holy  mountain,"  etc.  But  this  seems  hardly  so  good  as  the  sense 
given  in  the  text.    Obad.   16-21. 

3  Zarephath=Sarepta— the  present  Surafend,  between  Tyre  and  Sidon,  on  the 
coast.    1  Kings  xvii.  9. 

3  Sepharad.  Graetz  would  read  Arad  :  a  place  on  the  Phoenician  coast.  Keil 
thinks  of  Sparta  :  others  suppose  Sardis  meant,  since  it  is  called  Sepharad  (C  P  a 
R  a  D)  in  old  Persian  inscriptions.  But  Schrader  very  justly  hesitates  to  accept  this, 
on  various  grounds,  and  looks  rather  to  Babylonia,  where  the  locality  may  one  day 
be  identified.    Keilinschriften,  p.  285.  *  The  Negeb. 

»  The  overthrow  of  Edom  by  the  Chaldseans  is  implied  in  Jer.  xlix.  7;  Ezek.  xxxv,, 


144  EDOM    AKD    THE    KATIOJ^S    ROUITD. 

Thus  spoke  Obadiali,  repeating,  in  effect,  the  curse 
denounced  against  Idumea  by  Amos*  and  Isaiah'  about 
200  and  150  years,  respectively,  before  the  Chaldaean 
destruction  of  Jerusalem.  But  the  indignation  in  Judah 
excited  by  the  cruel  desertion  of  the  nations  pledged  to 
support  her  in  her  final  struggle,  and  especially  by  the 
base  malignity  of  Edom,  stirred  the  hearts  of  his  brother 
prophets  no  less  strongly.  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  widely 
apart  as  they  were,  felt  alike  towards  the  betrayers  of  their 
people,  and  launclied  equally  terrible  utterances  against 
them.  It  is  impossible  in  all  cases  to  fix  the  exact  dates  of 
these  prophecies,  but  those  of  Jeremiah  at  least,  from  his 
age,^  must  have  been  spoken  very  soon  after  his  country- 
men had  been  carried  off  to  Babylon.  The  doom  of 
Edom,  pronounced  by  him  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  was 
terrible. 

*'  XLIX.  7.  Concerning  Edom — it  began — thus  saith  Jehovah  of 
Hosts:*  Is  there  no  longer  wisdom  in  Teman  ?^  Has  counsel  per- 
ished from  the  understanding  ones  ?  Has  their  wisdom  vanished  ? 
8.  Flee !  turn !  seek  the  deep  caves  (of  your  hills)  for  dwellings,  (or  the 
depths  of  the  desert),  ye  inhabitants  of  Dedan,^  for  I  am  about  to  bring 

comp.  Jer.  xxv.  9,  21,  and  Mai.  i.  3.  John  Hyrcanus  finally  cruBhed  the  Edomites 
and  compelled  them  to  submit  to  circumcision,  b.c.  129  (Jos.,  Ant.,  XIII.  ix.  1); 
Alexander  Jannseus  subdued  the  last  of  their  clans  (Jos.,  Ant.,  XIII.  xv.  4),  and 
Rome  finally  destroyed  the  nation.    Jos.,  Bell.  Jud.,  IV.  ix.  7. 

1  Amos  i.  11.    Vol.  iv.  p.  206.  2  jga.  xxxiv.  1-17.    Vol.  iv.  p.  414. 

'  Jeremiah  was  between  60  and  70  at  the  taking  of  Jerusalem. 

*  Jer.  xlix.  7-8.  The  resemblances  to  Obadiah  are  to  be  noted.  The  one  is 
evidently  copied,  in  some  clauses,  from  the  other.  *  See  vol.  v.  p.  330. 

^  Dedan,  which  is  always  mentioned  with  Sheba,  was  the  wide  region  of  Arabia, 
north  of  the  latter  ;  gradually  reaching,  indeed,  by  the  advance  of  the  population,  to 
the  southern  limits  of  Edom.  (Jer.  xlix.  8.)  It  is  curious  that  we  find  another  Dedan, 
and  also  another  Sheba,  among  the  descendants  of  Abraham.  (Gen.  xxv.  3.)  This 
apparently  rises  from  the  peoples  of  both  Dedan  and  Sheba  having  gradually  spread 
northwards,  first  in  caravan  journeys,  and  finally  in  permanent  settlements,  among 
the  tribes  descended  from  Abraham,  who  lived  in  these  parts  ;  till  the  whole  became 
a  mixed  race  to  which  the  common  names  still  clung.  (Schrader,  in  Riehm'a  Hand- 
wOrtertmch.    Steiner,  in  Schenkel's  Bibel  Lexicon.) 


EDOM    AND   THE   NATIONS    ROUND.  145 

on  Esau  his  destruction:  the  time  of  his  visitation!  9.  If  grape- 
gatherers  came  to  thee,  would  they  not  leave  some  gleanings  ?  if  a 
thieving  horde,  by  night,  they  would  take  only  what  they  could  carry 
off.'  10.  But  I  will  strip  Esau  bare;  I  will  lay  open  his  secret  places, 
so  that  he  shall  not  be  able  to  hide  himself.  His  seed  shall  be  spoiled, 
and  his  brethren,  (the  related  tribes),  his  neighbours,  will  perish.^  11. 
(Thy  men  having  all  been  destroyed),  leave  thy  fatherless  children  (0 
Edom)  ;  I  will  preserve  them  alive  ;  and  let  thy  widows  trust  in  Me  ! 
13.  For  thus  saith  Jehovah,  Behold,  those  to  whom  it  belonged  not  to 
drink  the  cup  (of  My  wrath — My  own  people)  must  drink  it,  and  shalt 
thou  go  unpunished  ?  Thou  shalt  not  go  unpunished,  but  drink  it 
thou  shalt!  13.  For  I  have  sworn  by  Myself,  says  Jehovah,  that 
Bozrah^  shall  become  a  horror,  a  contempt,  a  desolation,  and  a  curse, 
and  all  its  towns  shall  be  perpetual  wastes."  * 

The  destruction  of  Edom  being  a  righteous  judgment 
from  Jehovah,  the  prophet  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  com- 
mand to  the  Ohaldaeans  to  invade  it  as  coming  from 
above. 

"14.  I  have  heard  a  rumour  which  is  from  Jehovah  ;  a  messenger 
has  been  sent  to  the  nations,  saying,  '  Assemble  and  come  against  it ; 
arise  to  war! '  15.  For,  lo,  I  will  make  thee  small  among  the  nations, 
(0  Edom!),  and  despised  among  men.  16.  The  fear  of  thee,^  and  the 
pride  of  thy  heart,  have  deceived  thee,  0  thou  who  dwellest  in  clefts  of 
the  rocks, '"  and  sittest  fast  on  the  heights  of  the  hills.  Though  thou 
buildest  thy  nest  high  as  the  eagle,  I  will  drag  thee  down  from  thence, 
saith  Jehovah,  IT.  and  Edom  shall  be  a  desolation  !  Every  one  who 
passes  by  it  will  be  dismayed,^  and  will  hiss,  (in  scorn  and  mockery), 
at  all  the  plagues  it  has  borne.  18.  As  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  and 
their  neighbour  towns,  were  destroyed  utterly,  saith  Jehovah,  so  no 
man  will  dwell  in  Edom  any  more:  no  man  will  sojourn  in  it." 

The  ascent  of  the  Edomite  hills  by  the  invader  is  now 
described. 

»  What  was  enough,  to  them.    Jer.  xlix.  9-18. 

«  Literally,  "  are  gone,"  or  "  he  is  gone."  '  Vol.  iv.  p.  415. 

*  Dry  places,  or  deserts.  »  Literally,  "  thy  terribleness." 

•  See  p.  140.     The  word  for  '^  rock  "  is  Selah— a  name  of  Petra. 

^  The  noun  and  the  verb  in  these  sentences  are  the  same— dismayed  may  therefore 
oe  read  ''  filled  with  terror,  or  fear." 
VOL.  VL— 10 


146  EDOM    AND    THE    NATIONS    ROUND. 

"19.  Behold  !  he  will  come  up  (against  thy  hill  cities),  as  a  lion 
comes  up  from  the  thickets  of  the  bed  of  the  Jordan,  against  the 
flocks  on  the  rock  pastures  of  the  Negeb, '  and  I  will  make  Edora  run 
forthwith  (like  a  scattered  flock)  from  her  rocks,  and  I  will  appoint 
over  it  him  who  is  chosen  (by  Me).  For  who  is  My  equal,  and  who 
will  challenge  My  doings  ?  And  who  is  the  shepherd  (or  leader  of 
men)  who  will  stand  before  Me  ? 

"20.  Therefore,  hear  the  decree  of  Jehovah,  that  He  has  made 
against  Edom,  and  His  purposes  that  He  has  purposed  against  the 
inhabitants  of  Teman.^  Verily,  they  shall  drive  them  before  them— 
weak  ones  of  the  flock  as  they  are  !  Verily  their  pasture  itself  will  be 
dismayed  at  them.'  21.  The  earth  trembles  at  the  noise  of  their  down- 
fall ;  a  cry  will  rise,  the  sound  of  which  will  be  heard  even  to  the  Red 
Sea.*  22.  Behold,  the  invader  will  mount  up,  and  fly,  and  spread  out 
his  wings  like  an  eagle,  over  Bozrah,  and  the  heart  of  the  mighty  men, 
in  that  day,  will  be  like  the  heart  of  a  woman  in  her  trouble  !  " 

Not  less  sternly  did  the  curse  against  Edom  sound  from 
the  banks  of  the  Ohebar.  Ezekiel  proclaims  it  in  few  but 
terrible  words. 

"  XXV.  12.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,^  Because  Edom  has  taken 
revenge  on  Judah,  and  made  herself  greatly  guilty  by  doing  so :  13. 
Therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  I  will  stretch  out  My  hand 
against  Edom,  and  root  out  man  and  beast  from  it,  and  make  it  a 
desert ;  from  Teman  (in  the  north)  to  Dedan  (in  the  south),  they  shall 
fall  by  the  sword.  14.  I  will  carry  out  My  revenge  on  Edom,  by  the 
hand  of  My  people  Israel.  It  will  fare  with  Edom  according  to  My 
anger  and  My  fierce  wrath,  and  they  shall  know  My  revenge  !  saith 
the  Lord  Jehovah." 

Edom,  however,  did  not  stand  alone  as  the  object  of 
the  denunciations  of  the  prophets  ;  all  the  peoples  who 
had  betrayed  Judah  and  vented  their  hatred  against  her, 

1  Wilton's  Negeb,  p.  43.    Jer.  xlix.  19-22. 

2  Wilton  shewp,  from  Josh.  xv.  1,  that  Teman  must  have  been  the  northern  part  of 
the  range  of  Seir,  next  Judah.     The  Negeb,  p.  123. 

3  This  passage  is  repeated  in  chap.  1.  45. 

*  Literally,  "  The  weedy  sea."  Edom  extended  to  the  Red  Sea  in  the  days  of  her 
glory.    1  Kings  ix.  26.  ^  Ezek.  xxv.  12-14. 


EDOM    AND    THE    NATIONS    BOUND.  147 

were  alike  condemned.'     Calamities   terrible  as   those   of 
Jerusalem  were  to  come  upon  all  its  neighbours  in  turn. 

The  doom  of  the  Philistines  pronounced  by  Jeremiah, 
before  '^Pharaoh  (Hophra  ?)  smote  Gaza"*^ — an  incident 
otherwise  unrecorded — opens  with  a  figure  suggested  by 
the  great  river  Euphrates,  on  which  Babylon  stood.  The 
awful  power  of  the  Chaldaeans  is  compared  to  an  over- 
whelming flood,  coming  from  the  North. 

"  XL  VII.  2.  Thus  saith  Jehovah:-  Behold,  waters  rise  from  the 
north  ^  and  swell  to  a  flood,  overflowing  the  river  banks,  and  will 
deluge  the  open  country  and  all  in  it,  the  town  and  its  inhabitants ; 
and  the  men  will  lament  aloud;  all  the  people  of  the  land  will  shriek 
in  terror.  3.  At  the  loud  beating  of  the  hoofs  of  his  war-horses,  at 
the  bounding  of  his  chariots,  at  the  rattling  of  their  wheels,  the 
fathers,  (in  their  flight),  will  not  look  back  to  their  children,  (to  save 
them) ;  so  terror-stricken  will  they  be  *  4.  because  of  the  day  which 
then  comes,  to  destroy  all  the  Philistines,  and  cut  off  from  Tyre  and 
Sidon  every  one  left  to  help  them.*  For  Jehovah  will  destroy  the 
Philistines — the  remnant  of  the  people  who  came  from  Caphtor.®  5. 
Baldness  (the  sign  of  mourning)^  has  come  on  Gaza;  Askelon  is 
destroyed,  and  the  rest  of  the  Philistine  plain.*  How  long  (0 
Philistia)  wilt  thou  cut  thyself  (for  sorrow)  !  ^ 

"  6.  0  thou  sword  of  Jehovah,  how  long  wilt  thou  not  cease  ?    Back 

1  Though  not  expressly  stated,  it  is  in  itself  probable  that  the  Philistines  had  taken 
advantage  of  the  sore  straits  of  Judah  to  gratify  their  hatred  of  her.  Ezek.  xvi.  27- 
57.    Amos  i.  6.    Isa.   ix.  12  ;  xi.   14.    Zeph.  ii.  5.    Chad.  19.    Joel  iii.  4.    Zech.  ix.  5. 

'  Jer.  xlvii.  2-6. 

3  In  Isa.  viii.  7  the  same  figure  is  used  of  the  Assyrian  army. 

•  Literally,  '•  the  powerlessness  of  their  hands  will  be  such." 

6  The  Philistines  hired  themselves  out  as  mercenaries. 

«  See  notices  of  Caphtor  in  the  indexes  of  the  different  volumes. 

7  Jer.  xvi.  6. 

•  The  word  is  Aimek— a  long  broad  sweep,  like  the  Plain  of  Esdraelon  or  the  Ghor 
of  the  Jordan.  The  Septuagint  has  "the  remnant  of  the  Anakim."  Num.  xiii. 
33.  Deut.  ii.  10.  1  Sam.  xvii.  4.  1  Chron.  xx.  5-8.  For  "the  Philistine '' in  the 
text,  the  Hebrew  has  "their." 

•  The  "remnant"  of  Philistia,  for  it  is  only  a  remnant,  Psammetichus  having 
sorely  weakened  them  by  his  long  siege  of  Ashdod  (Herod.,  ii.  157),  sit  in  deep  grief, 
like  women  who  pull  out  their  hair,  and,  in  agonizing  despair,  cut  themselves,  as  was 
their  cafltom  in  such  cases.    Jer.  xvi.  6  ;  xlviii.  37. 


148  EDOM    AND    THE    NATIONS    ROUND. 

to  thy  scabbard!  Rest!  Be  still  !  7.  But  how  can  it  rest,  since 
Jehovah  has  given  it  a  mission  against  Askelon  and  the  sea-coast  (of 
Philistia)  ?    There  has  He  given  it  its  charge !  " 

Ascalon  is  on  the  sea-shore,  about  twelve  miles  north  of 
Gaza,  lying  in  a  semicircle,  at  a  spot  richly  fertile,  amidst 
surrounding  sand,  from  the  presence  of  copious  springs. 
The  lower  limestone  beds  on  which  the  wall  of  central  hills 
rest,  beyond  the  rolling  Philistine  plain,  here,  at  least 
fifteen  miles  broad,  crops  out  on  the  shore  in  low  bluffs, 
buried,  for  immemorial  ages,  except  on  their  sea  face,  by 
the  restless  sand  drift.  Bending  back  from  the  very  edge  of 
the  waves,  at  Ascalon,  they  sweep  round,  in  a  great  amphi- 
theatre, till  they  again  dip  their  foot  in  the  sea,  about  a 
mile  farther  north  ;  each  end  of  the  arc,  and,  indeed,  its 
whole  circuit,  towering  high  enough  to  lift  the  forts  and 
castles,  once  looking  down  from  them,  far  above  the  level 
of  the  plain  outside,  over  which  their  sentinels  kept  grim 
watch  and  ward.  The  Ascalon  of  Bible  times  has,  long 
ago,  been  buried  deep,  below  the  rich  soil  of  the  little  oasis, 
which  the  abundance  of  water  has  created,  over  the  whole 
interior  of  this  natural  rampart,  and  so  has  it  been,  even 
with  the  Ascalon  of  Roman  days.  All  that  remains  above 
ground  is  only  as  old  as  the  Crusades,  but  great  numbers 
of  marble  pillars,  built  into  the  walls  of  these  mediaeval 
strongholds,  speak  of  the  splendour  of  the  city  which 
yielded  such  spoil.  Indeed  the  soil  is,  everywhere,  full  of 
the  wreck  of  the  great  past.  The  spade  and  the  pick  have, 
for  ages,  been  busy  digging  out  statues,  columns,  squared 
stones,  and  every  other  form  of  booty,  to  burn  for  lime, 
or  build  into  modern  structures,  or  silently  appropriate. 
Great  numbers  of  marble  pillars  lay  waiting  removal  when 
I  was  there,  and  I  met  numbers  of  camels  plodding  along 


BDOM   AND  THE   NATIONS  ROUND.  149 

to  Gaza,  with  loads  of  Ascalon  stones.  There  is  no  longer 
any  town,  or  even  a  hamlet ;  the  few  persons  who  spend 
their  lives  in  making  the  spot  beautiful  with  rich  gardens, 
the  produce  of  which  is  sold  to  the  neighbouring  towns, 
coming,  apparently,  from  these  to  jjly  their  vocation.  The 
never-resting  sand,  however,  must  give  them  constant 
anxiety,  for  it  has  drifted,  in  vast  sheets,  up  the  slopes  of 
the  bluffs,  all  round  the  semicircle,  and  has  even  buried 
part  of  the  garden  land,  while,  outside  the  walls,  the  trees 
of  what  were  orchards  only  a  few  years  ago,  are  scarcely  to 
be  seen  above  the  flood  of  yellow  desolation  which  stretches 
far  and  near. 

Far  away,  in  Babylonia,  Ezekiel  repeated  a  similar 
malediction. 

**  XXV.  15.  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,*  because  the  Philistines 
acted  revengefully,  and  wreaked  that  revenge  with  foul  contempt,'^  to 
destroy  Judah,  in  their  long-standing  enmity;  16.  Therefore,  thus  says 
the  Lord  Jehovah,  Behold,  I  will  stretch  out  My  hand  over  the  Philis- 
tines, and  I  will  cut  off  the  Cretans,^  and  destroy  the  remnant  of  them 
that  is  on  the  sea-coast.  17.  And  I  will  take  a  great  revenge  on  them 
with  fierce  chastisements,  and  they  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah, 
when  I  bring  my  revenge  upon  them." 

Moab,  among  other  kingdoms,  was  the  object  of  fierce 
denunciations.  Isaiah  had  prophesied  its  doom  long  be- 
fore, in  the  words  of  a  still  older  seer.*  Jeremiah  now 
lifted  up  his  voice  proclaiming  its  approaching  destruction, 
as  Balaam,  Amos,  and  others,  had  done,  from  the  time  of 
Moses.  But  since  the  reign  of  Mesa,  and  the  death  of 
Ahab,  with  a  brief  interval  during  the  reign  of  Jeroboam 

»  Ezek.  XXV.  15-17. 

*  The  word  comes  from  a  root  meaning  "  to  Btink.** 

•  Literally,  Cherethim,  or  Crethi.    1  Sam,  xxx.  14.    Zepb.  li.  ft. 
«  Isa.  chaps,  xv.  and  zvL 


150  EDOM  ANP   THE   l>rATIOKS   ROUKD. 

II.,  the  doomed  land  had  enjoyed  independence,  and  in- 
stead of  paying  tribute  to  the  Hebrews  had  harried  their 
borders  remorselessly/  Jeremiah  now,  however,  sees  it  at 
last  utterly  destroyed. 

"XLYIII.  1.  Respecting-  Moab;^  thus  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  the 
God  of  Israel;  Woe  to  Nebo,^  for  it  is  laid  wa^te:  Kiriathaim,  'the 
double  town,'''  is  put  to  shame,  is  taken:  Misgab,  *  the  citadel  on  the 
height,'  is  put  to  shame  and  broken  down/  2.  The  boasting  of  Moab 
is  gone !  In  Heshbon  they  (the  Chaldaeans)  plot  evil  against  the  land : 
'  Come,  let  us  cut  it  off  from  being  a  nation  ! '  Thou  also,  Mad- 
menah,"  will  be  brought  to  silence;  the  sword  will  pursue  thee.  3. 
(Hark!)  a  cry  from  Horonaim,^  'spoiling  and  huge  destruction'! 
4.  Moab  is  broken  to  pieces ;  (the  towns),  her  little  ones,  cause  their 
cry  to  be  heard  to  Zoar.**  5.  They  go  up  the  ascent  of  Luhith  with 
weeping;  in  the  descent  of  Horonaim  the  wail  is  heard,  over  the  ruin 
(that  has  come  on  them),  6.  Flee,  save  your  lives,  like  him  who 
escapes,  naked,  to  the  wilderness.  7.  Because  thou  trustedst  in  thy 
strongholds  and  in  thy  treasures,  thou  shalt  be  taken  (in  war),  and 
Chemosh,^  (thy  god),  shall  wander  forth  into  captivity;  his  priests  and 
his  princes  with  him !     8.  And  the  spoiler  shall  come  up  upon  every 

1  2  Kings  xiii.  20.  ^  jer.  xlviii,  1-8. 

3  Nebo.  The  highest  peak  of  the  Abarim  range  near  the  north  end  of  the  Dead 
Sea,  but  also  the  name  of  a  town  in  Moab,  or  rather  in  the  territory  of  Reuben 
(Num.  xxxii.  38),  held,  in  the  prophet's  day,  by  Moab.  It  was  taken  by  Mesa  about 
B.C.  8t\5.  The  word  is  derived  by  Hitzig  from  the  Sanscrit,  and  rendered  by  him, 
"  the  cloudy  heaven  ; "  and  hence,  he  says,  there  was  a  god  Nebo,  after  whom  the 
town  of  the  name  was  called.  Sayce,  however,  more  correctly,  derives  Nebo  from 
Nabi,  "  a  prophet,"  as  if  in  remembrance  of  one  of  the  order  in  ancient  times.  The 
village  of  Nebo  may  have  been  on  the  mountain  of  tlie  same  name. 

*  Kiriathaim,  the  modern  Kureiyat.  The  latter,  like  Nebo,  lay  on  the  east  edge  of 
the  upland  plateau,  and  the  two  thus  stand  for  the  table-land  generally.  Kiriathaim 
was,  apparently,  between  Dibon  and  Medeba. 

'  Misgab  =  the  height,  the  citadel.  De  Saulcy,  writing  of  the  neighbourhood  of 
Kureiyat,  speaks  of  extensive  ancient  ruins,  and  a  circular  enclosure,  constructed 
with  very  large  stones,  and  crowning  the  summit  of  a  high  cliff.     Vol.  i.  pp.  546-555. 

«  A  district  of  Moab  famous  for  its  rich  soil.  Hitzig,  2d  ed.,  translates  "Mad- 
men "  as  in  Isa.  xxv.  10,  "  dunghill  ;  "  and  makes  the  clause  apply  to  Heshbon — 
"  yea,  to  dungheaps  wilt  thou  be  brought."  The  corpses  of  the  elain  will  lie  rotting 
on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

'  Literally,  "  the  two  caves,"  a  town  of  Moab. 

"  Septuagint.    Ewald.    Graf. 

•  The  national  god  of  Moab.  This  being  the  only  god  anywhere  mentioned  in 
connection  with  Moab,  the  nation  would  seem  to  have  been  practically  mouotheista. 


BDOM   AND   THE   NATIONS   ROUND.  151 

town,  not  one  shall  escape;  the  lowland  *  shall  be  ruined  and  the  table- 
land •  be  laid  waste,  as  Jehovah  has  spoken. 

"9.  Give  Moab  wings,'  that  it  may  fly  off  and  get  away,  (like  a  bird 
scared  from  its  nest),  for  her  cities  shall  be  made  an  uninhabited  deso- 
lation. 10.  Cursed  be  he  who  does  the  work  of  Jehovah  slackly; 
cursed  be  he"  who  holds  back  his  sword  from  blood.  11.  Moab  has 
remained  from  his  youth  undisturbed;  he  has  lain  still,  (in  his  coun- 
try, like  wine)  on  its  lees;  he  has  not  been  emptied  from  vessel  to  ves- 
sel*— (that  is,)  he  has  not  gone  away  into  captivity  (but  has  enjoyed 
prosperity),  and  hence  his  taste  has  remained  in  him,  and  his  fragrance 
is  not  changed.*  12.  Therefore,  behold,  days  come,  says  Jehovah,  that 
1  will  send  to  him  those  who  will  turn  him  on  his  side  (as  they  do  wine 
jars),  and  pour  him  out,  emptying  his  wine  jars,  and  shattering  his 
flagons.  13.  And  Moab  shall  be  ashamed  of  Chemosh,  as  the  children 
of  Israel  were  ashamed  of  Bethel,®  their  confidence. 

"  14.  (When  it  will  then  happen  with  you  as  with  the  weak  and  un- 
warlike)  how  will  you  be  able  to  say,  (any  longer),  '  We  are  mighty  men 
and  strong  for  war '  ?  15.  Moab  is  laid  waste ;  his  cities  have  gone  up 
(in  smoke  and  flame), ^  and  his  chosen  young  men  are  led  like  sheep  to 
the  slaughter-block,  says  the  King,  whose  name  is  Jehovah  of  Hosts. 

"  IG.  The  destruction  of  Moab  is  near  at  hand,  his  calamity  hastens 
fast.  17.  All  ye,  his  neighbours,  bewail  him,  and  all  ye  who  know  his 
name  say,  *  How  is  the  sceptre  of  might  broken,  the  rod  of  power.' 
18.  Come  down  from  thy  glory,  thou  daughter,  inhabitress  of  (well- 
watered)  Dibon,^  and  sit  thirsty  on  the  ground,  (captives,  waiting  to 
be  led  away),  for  the  spoiler  of  Moab  shall  come  upon  thee ;  he  shall 
destroy  thy  strongholds.  19.  Stand  out  in  the  road,  0  inhabitant'' 
of  Aroer,  and  look ;  ask  him  that  is  fleeing,  and  her  that  has  escaped, 
•What  has  happened?'  30.  Moab  is  put  to  shame;  yea,  it  is  over- 
thrown; howl  and  cry;  tell  it  in  Arnon  that  Moab  is  laid  waste!     21. 

1  Aimek-  the  broad  Bweeps  of  valley  between  hills,  including  perhaps  the  Ghor  of 
the  Jordan.     See  p,  147. 
»  The  Mishor  =  upland  downs,  without  rock  or  Btoneg. 
»  Jer.  xlviii.  9-20. 

*  To  remain  on  its  lees  improved  wine  ;  to  be  emptied  from  vessel  to  vessel,  made 
it  tasteless  and  without  fragrance.  Its  taste  and  smell  were  benefited  and  preserved 
if  it  were  not  poured  off  its  lees. 

»  Moab  remained  the  same  in  its  feelings  to  other  nations— harsh  and  bitter. 

•  The  calf  gods  of  Bethel. 

'  Or.  "the  spoiler  has  gone  up  to  his  cities." 

•  "  Ye  inhabitants  of  Dibon."  For  a  notice  of  the  towns  mentioned  in  this  proph- 
ecy, see  vol.  iv.  pp.  104-111. 

*  Feminine  iu  the  Hebrew  for  all  the  populations. 


152  EDOM    AND   THE   NATIONS   ROUKD. 

The  judgment  (of  God)  has  come  on  the  uplands;*  on  Holon  and 
Jahazah  and  Mephaath,  23.  and  Dibon,  and  Nebo,  and  Beth-dibla- 
thaira,  23.  and  Kiriathaim,  and  Beth-gamul,  and  Beth-meon,  24.  and 
Kerioth,  and  Bozrah,^  and  on  all  the  towns  of  the  land  of  Moab,  far 
and  near.  25.  The  horn  of  Moab  is  cut  off,  and  his  arm  is  shattered, 
says  Jehovah ! " 

The  enemy  to  whom  it  is  committed  to  carry  out  the 
judgments  of  God  is  now  invoked.  lie  is  to  hand  to  Moab 
the  cup  of  the  Divine  wrath,  and  make  it  drunken,  till  it 
reels  and  falls,  the  derision  of  those  around.^  Its  pride 
against  Jehovah,  in  despising  Israel,  and  the  violence  done 
to  the  people  of  God,  by  seizing  on  their  inheritance  be- 
yond Jordan,  and  cheering  on  the  Chaldseans  in  their 
attack  on  Jerusalem,  have  brought  on  the  offender  this 
fierce  indignation. 

**  XLVIII.  26.  Make  ye  him  drunken,  for  he  has  acted  haughtil^^ 
against  Jehovah;  (make  him  drunken)  till  he  fall  into  *  his  own  vomit, 
and  himself  become  a  derision  (as  he  made  Israel).  27.  Was  not  Israel 
a  derision  to  thee,  (and,  yet,  was  such  a  fate  deserved) — as  if  he  had 
l)een  found  among  thieves?  (Thou  couldst  not  have  treated  him  with 
more  contempt  had  he  been  so),  for,  as  often  as  thou  speakest  of  him, 
thou  tossest  thy  head  (in  scorn).*    28.  Abandon  your  towns  and  make 

1  Literally,  "the  land  of  the  Mishor."  As  in  verse  8.  See  vol.  ii.  p.  419.  Jer. 
xlviii.  21-28. 

3  Of  these  towns,  Dibon  lay  three  miles  north  of  the  Arnon  ;  Aroer  on  the  north 
bank  of  the  Arnon,  so  that  it  was  on  the  boundary  between  the  Hebrew  territory  and 
that  of  Moab,  but  at  this  time  Moab  held  a  large  part  of  the  land  formerly  enjoyed 
by  the  tribes  beyond  Jordan.  Holon  is  mentioned  only  here,  Jaliazah  seems  to  have 
lain  to  the  east  of  the  country,  on  the  edge  of  the  wilderness,  and  Mephaath  was 
near  it.  Beth-diblathaim  was  perhaps  north  of  Dibon.  The  name  means  "  the  house 
of  the  two  cakes  "  or  "  disks,"  apparently  snch  stones  as  are  still  found  on  the  site, 
round,  like  millstones,  but  too  large  for  use  as  such,  and  without  any  hole  in  the 
centre.  Beth-gamul  is  only  mentioned  here,  and  its  position  ia  unknown.  Beth- 
meon  was  apparently  near  Heshbon.  Kerioth  is  a  synonym  of  Ar,  or  Kir,  the  old 
capital  of  Moab.  The  plural  form  Kerioth  may  imply  that  it  included  two  or  more 
contiguous  towns.  Bozrah  is  not  identified.  The  word  means  "  sheepfolda,"  a  fit- 
ting name  for  small  communities  on  these  upland  pastures. 

3  See  a  similar  figure,  chap.  xxv.  15. 

•*  Literally,  "  splash  into,"  so  as  to  sound  like  the  beating  of  the  hands. 

*  Matt,  xxvii.  39. 


EDOM   AXD  THE   NATIOXS   ROUiSTD.  153 

your  home  in  the  clefts  of  the  rock,  ye  inhabitants  of  Moab,  and  be 
like  the  doves  which  build  their  nest  at  the  mouth  of  the  hill  caves.* 
29.  We  (of  Judah)  have  heard  of  the  pride  of  Moab,'^  for  he  is  insolent 
exceedingly — his  haughtiness,  his  arrogance,  his  lofty  airs,  and  the 
superciliousness  of  his  heart  (are  known  to  us).  30.  Even  I  (also)  know 
his  insolence,  says  Jehovah,  and  the  hollowness  of  his  boasting; '  the  lies 
that  he  has  uttered.  31.  Therefore  (at  the  thought  of  the  judgment 
coming  on  him  for  these)  I,  Jeremiah,  shriek  in  sorrow  for  JMoab,  I  cry 
aloud  for  all  its  land.  There  shall  be  moaning  for  the  men  of  Kir- 
heres.*  32.  0  Vine  of  Sibmah,  I  will  weep  for  thee  more  than  Jazer 
will  (over  the  wreck  of  its  homes  and  vineyards);  thy  shoots  reached 
over  the  sea,  they  reached  even  to  the  water  of  Jazer.*  The  spoiler 
will  fall  on  thy  fruit  harvest  and  on  thy  vintage.  33.  Joy  and  glad- 
ness are  taken  from  the  Carmel-like  field,  (so  richly  fruitful,)  and  from 
the  (whole)  land  of  Moab,  and  T  will  cause  the  wine  to  fail  from  the 
wine-vats;  no  one  will  tread  them  with  joyful  cry;  their  shouting  will 
be  no  shouting  (for  gladness,  but  the  cry  of  war).  34.  The  cry  of 
Heshbon  is  heard  at  Elealeh  (two  miles  off) ;  its  voice  sounds  even  to 
Jahaz;*  the  cry  of  Zoar  reaches  to  Horonaini  and  the  third  Eglath,'' 
for  even  the  waters  of  Nimrim  ^  shall  be  made  a  waste.  35.  And  I 
will  destroy  from  Moab,  says  Jehovah,  him  that  goeth  up  to  a  high 
place  and  burns  incense  to  his  gods." 

Another   outburst   of   lament    over   the   ruin   of    Moab 
follows. 

>  Keil  translates  this  phrase,  "  over  the  yawning  abyss,"  following  Hitzig.  But 
the  word  for  "abyss"  is  from  a  root.  *'  to  bore  through,"  "  to  pierce."  and  thus  suits 
a  cave  better  than  a  precipice.  In  verses  43,  44,  it  occurs  three  times,  and  is  rendered 
in  each,  '■'pit  "—apparently  a  concealed  cistern  or  grain  pit.  But  in  the  text  it  must 
mean  a  care,  since  doves  breed  in  such  recesses,  not  in  pits. 

*  Jer.  xlviii.  29-35. 
3  Or,  "babbling." 

*  The  chief  stronghold  of  Moab.  The  Kirhareseth  and  Kirharesh  of  Isa.  xvi  7, 
11,  also  called  Kir  of  Moab  and  Klrkhu  ;  see  the  Moabite  Stone,    Now  Kerak. 

6  Sibmah  was,  according  to  St.  Jerome,  only  500  paces  from  Heshbon.  Jazer  was 
15  miles  north  of  it.  "The  sea  "is  the  Dead  Sea.  The  fame  of  the  vines  of  Jazer 
was  widely  spread. 

*  Much  farther  off.  to  the  south-west. 

'  This  is  Ewald,  Graf,  and  Keil's  reading,  on  the  assumption  that  there  were  three 
towns  of  that  name. 

8  "  This  is  a  rich  verdant  spot  at  the  south-east  end  of  the  Dead  Sea.  It  still 
bears  ttve  Arab  name  of  Nimeirah,  and  here,  too.  we  found  traces  of  the  leopard." 
Dr.  Tristram.    "  Nahr  Nimrim  "  means  "  the  stream  of  the  leopards." 


154  EDOM   AND   THE   NATION'S   ROUND. 

**  36.  For  this,  my  heart  wails  *  like  mourning  flutes,  for  Moab ; 
my  heart  wails  like  mourning  flutes,  for  the  men  of  Kir-heres  ;  for 
the  abundance  they  have  saved  is  perished.  37.  For  every  head  is 
bald  and  every  beard  shaven  (in  mourning);  slashes  are  cut  on  all 
arms  (in  grief), '^  and  sackcloth  is  on  the  loins.  38.  Loud  shrieks 
rise  from  all  the  (flat)  house-roofs  of  Moab  and  in  her  public  places, 
for  I  have  broken  Moab  (in  pieces),  says  Jehovah,  like  a  vessel  in 
which  one  has  no  pleasure." 

There  will  be  no  escape  from  the  destruction  ! 

**  39.  They  shall  shriek  aloud,  '  Oh  I  how  is  our  land  ruined  I 
How  has  Moab  turned  her  back  with  shame  I '  Thus  will  Moab  be  a 
mockery  and  a  dismay  to  all  his  neighbours.  40.  For  thus  says  Jeho- 
vah, Behold  (the  enemy)  shall  swoop  down  like  an  eagle,  and  spread 
out  his  wings  over  Moab.  41.  Kerioth  ^  is  taken;  the  strongholds  are 
captured,  and  the  hearts  of  the  mighty  men  of  Moab  are  become,  in 
that  day,  like  the  heart  of  a  woman  in  her  trouble.  42.  And  Moab 
will  be  destroyed  from  being  a  people,  because  he  has  magnified  him- 
self against  Jehovah.  43.  Fear,  and  the  pit,  and  the  snare,  are  upon 
thee,  0  inhabitant  of  Moab,  says  Jehovah.  44.  He  who  flees  from  the 
fear  shall  fall  into  the  pit,  and  he  that  gets  out  of  the  pit  shall  be 
caught  in  the  snare,  for  I  shall  bring  on  him,  even  on  Moab,  the  year 
of  his  visitation,  says  Jehovah.  45.  The  fugitives  stand  (worn  out) 
under  the  shadow  of  (the  walls  of)  Ileshbon,*  but  fire  shall  break  out 
of  Heshbon,  and  flame  from  the  midst  of  Sihon,  and  will  consume  the 
border  of  Moab,  and  the  crown  of  the  head  of  its  haughty  sons.* 

"  46.  Woe  to  thee,  0  Moab!  The  people  of  Chemosh  are  lost!  for  thy 
sons  will  be  led  away  captives,  and  thy  daughters  to  captivity.  47. 
Yet  I  will  turn  again  the  captivity  of  Moab  in  the  end  of  days,  says 
Jehovah."  * 

Ezekiel,  on  the  banks  of  the  Chebar,  was  equally  stern 
in  his  denunciation  of  the  doomed  land. 

»  Jer.  xlviii.  36-47. 

»  "  It  was  a  custom  among  the  ancients,  and  is  still  common  among  the  Jews,  that 
they  cut  their  arms,  etc.,  in  their  grief."    Jerome,  on  Jer.  xvi.  6. 

»  See  verse  24.  *  A  neighbouring  city  of  the  Ammonites. 

6  Literally,  "  sons  of  tumult,"  perhaps=warriors. 

«  This  prophecy  is  more  or  less  adapted  from  other  prophecies.  Compare  this 
48th  chap,  of  Jeremiah  with  Isa.  xv.  and  xvi.  ;  Amos  ii.  1-3  ;  Zeph.  ii.  8-10,  and  the 
words  of  Balaam,  Num.  xxiv.  17. 


EDOM   AND   THE   :N'ATI0:N-S   ROUND.  155 

**XIV.  8.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,'  Because  Moab,  like  Seir, 
says,  *  Behold,  the  house  of  Judah  is  as  the  same  as  all  other  peoples,' 
9.  therefore,  lo,  I  will  open  to  the  inroads  of  the  Sons  of  the  East — 
(the  Arabs  2) — the  border  of  Moab,  from  the  cities  on  the  one  end  of  it, 
to  the  last  of  the  cities,  on  the  other — the  glory  of  the  land — Beth- 
jeshimoth,  Baal-meon  ^  and  Kiriathaim,*  10.  with  the  country  of  the 
Ammonites,  and  will  give  it  to  the  invaders  for  a  possession,  that  the 
Ammonites  may  no  longer  be  remembered  among  the  nations.  11. 
And  I  will  execute  judgments  on  Moab,  and  they  shall  know  that  I  am 
Jehovah." 

In  this  terrible  list  of  judgments  on  the  enemies  of 
Israel,  Ammon  was  included  by  both  Ezekiel  and  Jere- 
miah. The  people  of  God  were  not  to  suffer  alone.  The 
Divine  vengeance  would  light  even  more  heavily  on  the 
heathen,  far  and  near.  The  word  of  the  Lord,  Ezekiel 
tells  us,  came  again  to  him,  saying  : 

**XXV.  3.  Son  of  man,^  turn  thy  face  against  the  B'nai  Ammon 
and  prophesy  against  them,  3.  and  say  to  the  sons  of  Ammon,  Thus 
saith  the  Lord  Jehovah  :  Because  thou  saidst  '  Aha '  against  My 
Temple  when  it  was  desecrated,  and  against  the  land  of  Israel  when  it 
was  laid  waste,  and  against  the  house  of  Judah  when  it  went  into  exile — 
4.  behold,  I  will,  therefore,  give  thee  to  the  sons  of  the  East  (the  Arabs) 
for  a  possession,  that  they  may  set  up  their  tent  villages  in  thee,  and 
make  their  encampments  in  thee ;  and  they  will  eat  thy  produce  and 
drink  thy  milk.  5.  And  I  will  make  Kabbah  (thy  capital)  a  browsing 
place  for  camels — and  the  (home  of)  the  B'nai  Ammon  for  a  gathering 
place  of  herds,  and  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah.  6.  For  thus 
says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  Because  thou  didst  clap  thy  hands,  and  stamp 
(for  joy)  with  thy  feet,  and  rejoice  with  the  deadliest  contempt,  at  (the 
calamities  of)  the  land  of  Israel,  7.  behold,  I  will  therefore  stretch  out 
My  hand  over  thee,  and  deliver  thee  for  a  spoil  to  the  peoples,  and 
root  thee  out  from  among  them,  and  destroy  thee  from  among  the 
nations,  and  thou  shalt  know  that  I  am  Jehovah!  " 

»  Ezek.  XXV.  8-11. 

2  "Sons  of  the  East,"  the  same  as  our  later  word  "Saracens."  The  Arabs  would 
overrun  and  occupy  both  Ammon  and  Moab,  as  has  been  the  case  for  ages. 

>  The!?e  towns  were  in  the  territory  of  Reuben,  but  in  Ezekiel's  day  were  held  by 
Moab.  *  Sir  G.  Grove  thinks  Kiriatham,  not  Kiriathaim,  was  the  original  form. 

•  Ezek.  XXV.  1-7. 


156  EDOM   AKD  THE   NATI0:N'S   HOUKD. 

The  territory  of  Ammon  lay  to  tlie  north  of  Moab,  to 
which  its  people  were  closely  allied  by  blood.  The  tribe  of 
Gad  had  long  before  received  their  country  as  its  inheri- 
tance^ after  the  defeat  of  Sihon  their  king  ;  but  the  depor- 
tation of  the  eastern  tribes  by  Tiglath-Pileser  '  had  en- 
abled them  to  re-occupy  the  district,  from  which,  indeed, 
they  had  probably  never  been  wholly  expelled.  Less  set- 
tled than  Moab,  the  Ammonites  had  only  one  city  of  any 
size,  their  capital,  Rabbah  ;  the  region  being  generally 
pastoral.  Hereditary  enemies  of  Israel,^  they  would  not 
long  have  cause  for  rejoicing  at  his  fall.  Like  Ezekiel, 
Jeremiah  j^roclaimed  their  coming  doom. 

**  XLIX.  1.  Concerning  the  B'nai  Ammon, ^  thus  says  Jehovah: 
Has  Israel  no  sons  (left)?  Has  he  no  heirs?  Why,  then,  has  Milcom, 
(the  god  of  the  Ammonites),  taken  the  territory  of  Gad  as  an  inher- 
itance, (instead  of  Jehovah?)  and  why  do  his  people  dwell  in  its  towns? 
2.  Because  of  this,  the  days  come  when  I  sliall  cause  Rabbah  of  the 
B'nai  Ammon  to  hear  the  shout  of  battle,  and  it  will  be  made  heaps  of 
ruins,  and  (the  small  towns  round  it) — its  daughters — will  be  burned 
with  fire,  and  then  shall  Israel  dispossess  them  that  took  possession  of 
his  territory,  says  Jehovah.  3.  Lament  aloud,  0  Heshbon,  for  Ai,* 
(near  thee),  is  (already)  laid  waste !  Shriek,  ye  daughters  of  Rabbah 
(inhabitants  of  the  little  towns  near  her);  gird  yourselves  with  sack- 
cloth ;  lament,  and  run  hither  and  thither,  behind  the  rude  stone  walls 
of  thy  J edars,^  for  Milcom  (your  god)  shall  go  into  captivity,  and  with 
him  his  priests  and  his  princes.  4.  Why  gloriest  thou  in  the  glens  (of 
thy  land),  the  wealth  ®  of  thy  (chief)  valley,  (below  Rabbah),  0  rebell- 

I  2  Kings  XV.  29.     See  vol.  iv.  p.  275,  ff. 

a  Jiidg.  X.  7  ;  xi.  12-32.  1  Sam.  xi.  2  Sam.  x.  and  xi.  ;  xii.  26.  1  Chron.  xx. 
Amos  i.  13-15.    2  Kings  xxiv.  2.    2  Chron.  xxvi.  8.    2  Kings  xv.  29.    1  Chron.  v.  26. 

^  Jer.  xlix.  1-4. 

*  Not  the  Ai  on  the  wept  of  the  Jordan.     Graf  suggests  "  Ar  "  (Num.  xxi.  15). 

6  See  vol.  iv.  p.  230.  It  is  translated  in  the  A.V.— "  sheepfolds,"  "folds," 
" sheepcotes,"  "  hedges,"  "wall,"  and  included  the  dry  stone  walls  used  for  all  in. 
closures  alike. 

«  With  Ewald  and  Graf,  I  take  the  participle  as  a  substantive.  The  Septuagint 
has  Anakim  for  Amakim  (valleys),  and  is  probably  right.  A  remnant  of  the  old 
gigantic  race  may  have  previously  held  them. 


EDOM    AND  THE   NATIONS   ROUND.  167 

ious  daughter,  who  trustedst  in  (the  lasting  possession  of)  thy  treas- 
ures, saying.  'Who  will  come  to  me'  (to  attack  me)?  5.  Behold,  I 
will  cause  terror  to  come  on  thee  from  all  sides,  ^  says  the  Lord,  Jeho- 
vah of  Hosts,  and  ye  shall  be  driven  out,  every  man  straight  before 
him,  no  one  stopping  to  rally  or  gather  the  fugitives.  6.  Yet,  here- 
after, I  will  turn  back  the  captivity  of  the  B'nai  Ammon,  says 
Jehovah."' 

Damascus,  now  an  inconsiderable  state,  under  we  know 
not  what  rule,  had  brought  on  itself  the  same  doom  as  its 
neighbours,  for  the  same  cause.  Its  fate  is  thus  foretold  by 
Jeremiah. 

"XLIX.  23.  Hamath '  is  put  to  shame,  and  Arpad,*  for  they  have 
heard  evil  tidings,  they  are  in  despair.*  There  is  sorrow  even  on  the 
sea  (coast);  (like  the  sea)  men  cannot  rest.  24.  Damascus  has  lost 
heart  and  turns  to  flee,  trembling  has  seized  her,  anguish  and  woe  like 
that  of  a  woman  in  her  trouble.  25.  Oh!  how  sad,  that  the  famous, 
the  delightsome  city  should  not  be  abandoned  (by  its  people)  before  her 
fall!  26.  Therefore,  her  young  men  will  fall  in  her  streets,  and  all 
her  fighting  men  will  be  cut  off  in  that  day,  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts. 
27.  And  I  will  kindle  fire  on  the  wall  of  Damascus,  that  will  consume 
the  palaces  of  Benhadad."  ^ 

The  various  Arab  races,  settled  and  nomadic,  in  the  wide 
regions  between  Palestine  and  the  Euphrates,  are  next 
arraigned  and  given  over  to  the  visitation  of  God.  The 
denunciation  is  directed    against  '^Kedar'  and  the  king- 

»  Jer.  xlix.  5-6  ;  23-27. 

"^  The  Rabbis  held  that  the  Ammonites  retnmed  when  some  of  their  race  in  later 
times  became  proselytes  to  Judaism.    Barclay's  Talmud. 

'  Hnmath  was  at  one  time  under  the  Hittites,  as  shewn  by  Hittite  inscriptions 
found  there. 

«  A  city  15  miles  north  of  Aleppo,  now  Brvad.  *  Literally,  "  they  melt  away." 

•  Amos  i.  4,  14.  Ben-Hadad  =  the  eon  of  Hadad,  the  chief  god  of  Damascus; 
sometimes  called  Hadad  Rimmon. 

'  Kedar  is  used  here  as  a  general  name  for  all  the  nomadic  tribes  of  Arabs  ;  Hazor 
for  those  dwelling  in  fixed  encampments  or  villages.  The  settled  Arabs  are  still 
called  Hadarije,  in  contrast  to  Wabarije  or  tent  Arabs  ;  and  Hadar=  Hazor  is  the 
fixed  dwelling,  in  distinction  from  "  Bedu,"  the  open  desert.  Keil,  Jeretnia,  p.  490. 
Delitzsch,  Je$.,  xlii.  11.  The  "  men  "  or  '•  son.s  of  the  East "  are  the  Arabs  as  a  whole, 
(afterwards)  known  as  the  Napateaus  or  Kedarenea. 


158  EDOM   AKD   THE   N^ATIONS   ROUND. 

doms  of  Hazor,"  that  is,  the  Arab  villages  under  different 
sheiks,  ^' which  Nebuchadnezzar  king  of  Babylon  smote/' 
How  long  the  prophecy  had  been  uttered  before  its  fulfil- 
ment, we  have  no  means  of  knowing. 

"XLIX.  38.  Up,  (0  Chaldaeans), '  march  against  Kedar,  and  spoil 
the  sons  of  the  East !  29,  They  (the  Chaldaeans)  shall  take  their  tents 
and  their  sheep;  they  shall  carry  off  their  tent-cloths, ^  and  all  their 
household  utensils,  and  their  camels,  and  shall  raise  the  (war)  shout 
against  them.     Fear  shall  be  on  every  side ! 

"30.  Flee!  begone  as  far  as  you  may!  bury  yourselves  in  the  depth 
of  the  desert,  0  ye  inhabitants  of  Hazor,  saith  Jehovah.  For  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, king  of  Babylon,  has  formed  a  purpose  against  you,  and 
planned  war  upon  you.  31.  Up  (0  Chaldeans),  march  against  a  peo- 
ple living  quietly,  in  (fancied)  security,  saith  the  Lord ;  who  have  nei- 
ther gates  nor  bars  (to  oppose  you),  but  dwell  alone.  32.  Their  camels 
shall  be  a  booty,  and  the  multitude  of  their  herds  and  flocks  a  spoil. 
And  I  will  scatter  to  all  the  winds  the  race  that  wear  their  hair  shaven 
at  the  temples,  ^  and  I  will  bring  destruction  on  them  from  all  sides, 
saith  Jehovah.  33.  And  Hazor  shall  be  a  dwelling  for  jackals,  a  waste 
for  ever.     No  one  shall  live  there,  no  one  even  sojourn  in  it." 

The  last  in  this  list  of  doomed  communities  is  Elam, 
the  mountainous  region  on  the  west  of  the  lower  Tigris. 
The  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy,  nevertheless,  was  to  be 
remote ;  for  to  Elam,  under  its  king,  Cyrus,  and  to  Media, 
was  hereafter  given  the  commission  to  overthrow  Baby- 
lon.* Under  the  Persian  empire,  however,  its  indepen- 
dence was  lost,  and  it  became  the  seat  of  the  Persian 
capital,  Susa  or  Shushan.  It  was  in  the  beginning  of 
the  reign  of  Zedekiah,^  that  Jeremiah  was  moved,  we  do 
not  know  on  what  occasion,  to  foretell  the  destiny  of  this 

»  Jer.  xlix.  28-33. 

'  The  thick,  felt-like,  rainproof  coverings  of  goat's  hair  or  camel's  hair,  which 
Paul  employed  himself  in  making.  Herzog,  vol.  v.  p.  514  ;  vol.  vi.  p.  148.  The  two 
under  layers  of  coverings  of  the  tabernacle  are  described  by  the  word  used  here. 
Herzog,  vol.  xv.  p.  98.  '  See  vol.  v.  p.  191.  *  Isa.  xxi.  2. 

*  Jer.  xlix.  34.  The  prophecies  in  chaps,  xlvi.,  to  xlix.  and  xxxiii.,  had  been 
uttered  about  eeven  years  before.    Jer.  xlvi.  2. 


EDOM    AND    THE    JS^ATIONS    ROUND.  159 

country,  which  seemed  to  the  Jews  almost  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  habitable  world.  The  prediction  runs  as 
follows  ; 

*'XLIX.  35.  Thus  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts:  •  Behold,  I  break  the  bow 
of  Elam,'  (its  national  weapon),  36.  and  will  bring  on  it  the  four 
winds  from  the  four  ends  of  heaven,  and  will  scatter  its  people  to  all 
those  winds,  and  there  shall  be  no  nation  to  which  the  dispersed  of 
Elam  shall  not  come.  37.  And  I  will  make  Elam  dismayed  before  her 
enemies,  and  before  those  that  seek  her  life,  and  will  bring  evil  on 
them,  the  glow  of  My  anger,  says  Jehovah,  and  send  the  sword  after 
them  till  I  have  consumed  them.  38.  And  I  will  set  up  My  throne  in 
Elam,  and  destroy  out  of  it  kings  and  princes,  says  Jehovah.  '  39. 
Yet  in  the  end  of  days  I  will  bring  back  the  captivity  of  Elam,  says 
Jehovah." 

'  Jer.  xlix.  35-39. 

3  The  national  weapon,  see  vol.  iv.  452.  Sayce  thinks  that  the  conquest  of  Elam  re- 
ferred to  was  that  effected  by  Teiospes,  a  chief  of  the  royal  clan  of  the  Persians,  who 
appears  to  have  taken  possession  of  Elam  during  the  troublous  times  that  followed  the 
fall  of  Assyria.  The  result  of  this  was  to  make  Cyrus  an  Elamite  in  education  and 
religion.    Sayce,  Fresh  Light,  p.  180. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    MUKUEK    OF    GEDALIAH,    AND   THE    SIEGE    OF   TYRE. 

The  state  of  things  in  Judah,  after  the  Chaklaean  army 
retired,  taking  with  it  long  files  of  captives  to  Babylon, 
was  gloomy  in  the  extreme.  Jernsalem  and  the  Temple 
lay  in  ruins,  the  towns  and  villages  had  been  burned,  and 
most  of  the  surviving  population  had  fled  for  the  time. 
The  land  was  not,  however,  finally  abandoned  ;  for  there 
still  remained  the  bulk  of  the  population,  and  these,  when 
they  came  back  from  their  hiding  places,  formed  a  con- 
siderable community,  over  which  the  authority  of  Babylon 
must  be  upheld,  to  prevent  Egypt  from  taking  possession 
of  the  country.  Nebuchadnezzar,  therefore,  took  meas- 
ures for  the  organization  of  a  government  in  Judah.* 

Among  the  steady  advocates  of  quiet  submission  to  the 
Chaldaeans,  a  Jewish  noble — Gedaliah,  'Mie  whom  Jehovah 
has  made  great '' — had  borne  a  foremost  part.  As  a  recog- 
nition of  this  he  was  now  appointed  governor  of  the  land. 
He  was  the  grandson  of  Shaphan,  the  secretary  of  King 
Josiah,  and  son  of  Ahikam  who  had  been  sent  by  that  king 
to  the  prophetess  Huldah,  to  inquire  about  the  newly- 
found  Book  of  the  Law,  and  to  whom,  in  the  days  of 
Jehoiakim,  Jeremiah  owed  his  life."  Gedaliah  had  been 
no  less  faithful  to  the  best  traditions  of  the  past,  or  to 

1  The  subisequcnt  narrative  rests  mainly  on  Jeremiah,  chaps,  xl.,  xli.   xlii.,  and 
xliii. 
3  Jer.  xxvi.  21.    2  Kings  xxii.  12. 


THE   MURDER   OF   GEDALIAH.  161 

Jeremiah,  their  greatest  living  representative.  The  opin- 
ions of  the  statesman  and  the  prophet  were  identical  in 
religion  and  j^olitics,  and  thus  drew  them  together.  To 
both,  the  perjury  of  Zedekiah  in  his  rebellion  against 
Babylon,  was  the  cause  of  the  misery  that  had  over- 
whelmed the  nation  ;  and  both  might  be  implicitly  trusted 
to  be  loyal  to  Nebuchadnezzar. 

The  state  of  parties  iu  Jerusalem  had  been  intimately 
known  to  the  Chaldaeans,  and  hence  the  storming  of  the 
city,  which  had  overthrown  the  State,  was  the  signal  for 
Jeremiah  recovering  his  freedom.  In  return  for  his  firm 
support  of  Ohald^ea,  orders  were  issued  to  the  general  in 
command  at  Jerusalem,  to  take  him  under  his  protection 
and  shew  him  every  favour.  He  was  at  once,  therefore, 
removed  from  confinement  in  the  court  of  the  watch,  and 
commended  to  the  good  offices  of  Gedaliah,  though  free  to 
go  where  he  liked.  Led  first  to  Ramah,  the  Chaldaean 
headquarters,  about  five  miles  north  of  Jerusalem,  and  so 
far  on  the  way  to  Babylon,  the  manacles  hitherto  on  his 
wrists  were  there  struck  off,  and  he  was  invited  to  choose 
whether  he  would  go  with  honour  to  Babylon,  or  remain 
behind  in  his  ruined  native  country.  Knowing,  however, 
that  if  he  went  to  the  East  he  should  never  see  Judali 
again,  he  preferred  to  remain  amidst  scenes  which,  even 
in  their  desolation,  were  so  near  his  heart.  Gedaliah  had 
taken  up  his  abode  at  Mizpeli,  a  little  south  of  Ramah, 
and  to  him  the  proj^het  turned,  receiving  from  the  Chal- 
daean general,  when  he  left  him,  besides  other  substantial 
proofs  of  regard,  a  supply  of  provisions,  necessary  for  his 
support  till  the  next  harvest. 

A  better  day  seemed  now  dawning.  The  restless 
Egyptian    party   was   in   exile,    and   Gedaliah   had   every 

VOL.  VI.— u 


162  THE    MUEDER    OF    GEDALIAH. 

quality  his  position  seemed  to  demtind.  All  the  popula- 
tion were  committed  to  his  charge,  and  this  remnant  of 
the  nation  might  hope  slowly  to  regain  a  modest  pros- 
perity by  his  aid,  under  the  shadow  of  the  Great  King. 

The  news  of  the  new  settlement  of  affairs  soon  spread. 
An  amnesty,  which  jn'omised  the  best  results,  had  been 
proclaimed  to  all  who  gathered  round  Gedaliah.  Numbers 
of  men  throughout  the  country  had  formed  themselves 
into  armed  bands,  to  harass  the  Ohaldseans  during  the 
siege,  but  had  been  forced  to  flee  to  the  fastnesses  of  the 
distant  hills — to  Edom,  Moab,  and  Amnion — after  the 
city  was  taken.  Further  resistance  was  hopeless.  Their 
leaders,  therefore,  gladly  sent  in  their  submission  and  that 
of  their  followers,  to  the  new  governor,  himself  a  Jew,  in 
answer  to  his  overtures  of  protection  and  oblivion  of  the 
past,  if  they  proved  henceforth  loyal  subjects  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar. They  might  settle  where  they  liked  in  the 
depopulated  parts  of  the  country,  taking  possession  of  the 
abandoned  orchards,  vineyards,  and  fields.  A  great  many, 
attracted  by  such  offers,  flocked  in  from  all  sides. 

Among  other  leaders  of  these  rude  bands,  however,  was 
one  destined  to  ruin  the  fair  hopes  of  the  community. 
Ishmael — ominous  name — a  connection  of  the  old  Hebrew 
royal  family,  possibly  even  a  descendant  of  Elishama,  the 
son  of  David,'  but  perhaps  a  son  of  Zedekiah  or  one  of  the 
later  kings — was  still  the  head  of  a  company  which,  after 
the  siege,  had  taken  refuge  in  Amnion.  Women  from  that 
district  were  found  in  the  royal  harem  at  Jerusalem,'  and 
thus  Ishmael,  on  his  mother's  side,  may  have  been  con- 
nected with  the  Ammonite  court.  Jealous  of  the  eleva- 
tion of  Gedaliah,  and  familiarized  by  the  war  with  deeds 

s  Jer.  xli.  1.    2  Kings  xxv.  25.    2  Sam.  v.  16,  a  g  Kings  xi.  1. 


THE    MURDER    OF    GEDALIAH.  163 

of  blood,  Ishmael  was  a  ready  tool  for  any  crime  glossed  by 
ambition  or  a  shew  of  patriotism,  and  ere  long  agreed  with 
Baaltes,  tlie  king  of  Amnion,  to  assist  in  carrying  out  a  dark 
plot  against  Gedaliah.  To  kill  him  probably  seemed  to 
the  Ammonite  the  surest  way  of  bringing  final  ruin  on  the 
hated  Jews,  who,  if  allowed  to  recover  themselves,  might 
once  more  claim  the  territory  beyond  the  Jordan.  That 
he  had  consented  to  take  office  under  the  Chaldaean,  was, 
perhaps,  the  pretext  by  which  Ishmael  hushed  his  scruples. 
A  plot  was  accordingly  arranged,  by  which  Ishmael  should 
go  to  Miz^^eh  and  feign  submission  to  the  new  governor, 
with  a  view  to  his  murder ;  and  unfortunately  the  frank 
and  open  nature  of  the  intended  victim  made  it  only  too 
easily  successful. 

Gedaliah's  house  seems  to  have  stood  by  itself,  shut  off 
by  a  high  wall,  with  a  courtyard  enclosing  the  deep  well, 
or  reservoir,  dug  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  before,  by 
Asa,  to  supply  water  to  his  stronghold  raised  at  Mizpeh 
against  Baasha/  Hither  Ishmael  and  some  of  his  men 
repaired,  after  various  leaders  with  their  bands  had  already 
done  so,  and,  like  them,  he  doubtless  took  an  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  Great  King,  pledging  himself  to  be  his 
loyal  subject.  Free  access  to  the  governor  was  naturally 
granted  to  chiefs  who  had  thus  given  in  their  adhesion  to 
the  new  state  of  things;  but  this  confidence,  though  justi- 
fied by  tlie  conduct  of  all  but  Ishmael,  gave  him  a  fatal 
opportunity  of  carrying  out  his  treason.  Hoping  to  win 
other  leaders  to  join  him,  he  broached  the  subject  to  them, 
but  they  determined  to  thwart  the  black  design  if  possible. 
Two  brothers,  Johanan  and  Jonathan,  both  prominent  chief- 

1  1  Kings  XV.  16-22,  2  Chron.  xvi.  1-6.   The  stones  had  been  brought  from  Ramah, 
and  the  fortress  was  designed  to  bar  the  road  to  Jerusalem. 


164  THE   MURDER   OF    GEDALIAH. 

tains,  with  Seraiah,  at  the  head  of  a  band  from  Netophah, 
a  little  north  of  Bethlehem;  and  Jaazaniah,  from  Maachah, 
in  the  far  north,  near  the  springs  of  the  Jordan/  waited  on 
the  threatened  man  and  warned  him  of  his  danger.  But 
Ishmael  had  played  his  part  too  well,  and  had  lulled  his 
victim  to  a  false  security.  ''  It  was  impossible  such  a  man 
could  be  false  ;  they  slandered  him."  A  secret  interview 
obtained  by  Johanan  was  as  unsuccessful.  Knowing  the 
ruin  Gedaliah's  death  would  bring,  he  offered  to  kill  the 
conspirator  secretly,  but  2:)ermission  was  refused. 

Ishmael  arrived  about  a  month  after  the  fall  of  the  city, 
to  pay  homage  to  G-edaliah,  but  had  subsequently  left 
again  for  Ammon.'^  He  reappeared,  however,  thirty  days 
later,  on  the  third  ^  of  Tisri  " — nearly  our  October — with 
ten  ^^ princes"  or  '^^  dignitaries,"  ^ — perhaps  officers  of  the 
disbanded  Jewish  army — each,  probably,  attended  by  his 
folloAvers.  New  adherents  so  high  in  rank  seemed  a  great 
acquisition,  and  were  naturally  welcomed  by  the  governor 
in  a  feast  made  on  their  account ;  but  it  was  a  fatal  act  of 
courtesy.  The  unsuspecting  victim  was  liberal,  as  Josephus 
tells  us,  with  his  wine,  and  all  went  merrily,  till,  at  a  given 
signal,  he  and  every  one  in  the  mansion  were  struck  down 
by  Ishmael  and  his  confederates  ;  the  massacre  being  car- 
ried out  with  such  swift  secrecy  that  no  alarm  was  given 
outside,  and  no  one  escaped  to  tell  the  tale.  The  gray- 
haired  Jeremiah,  often  a  guest  at  Gedaliah's  table,  was 
fortunately  absent.  So  complete  had  been  the  prepara- 
tions, that  a  guard  of  honour  of  Chaldaean  soldiers,  on 
duty  round  the  house,  were  surprised  and  cut  down  to  a 
man,   and  the  residence  made  a  ghastly  scene   of  death, 

J  Conder'3  Handbook,  p.  254.  2  Jos.,  Ant.,  IX.  x.  3. 

»  So  says  tradition.  •»  Jer.  xli.  1.    Zech.  vii.  5.  •  Rabbal 


THE   MURDER   OF   GEDALIAH.  165 

without  the  townspeople,  outside,  having  the  least  sus- 
picion of  any  treason,  till  two  days  after  all  was  over. 
But  the  crimes  of  Ishmael  were,  as  yet,  only  half  finished. 
The  houses  of  Mizpeh,  built  on  a  hill-side,  stood  high  above 
the  country  around  ;  that  of  Gedaliah  rising  clear  of  the 
others,  perhaps  on  the  highest  terrace,  so  that  it  over- 
looked the  road  from  Shechem  and  Samaria  to  Jerusalem. 
Watching  from  this  vantage  ground,  Ishmael,  on  the 
second  day,  saw  a  band  of  travellers  approaching.  As^ 
whatever  their  errand  or  destination,  it  would  be  incum- 
bent on  them  to  wait  on  the  governor  and  pay  him  their 
respects,  it  seemed  imperative  to  make  away  with  them, 
lest  the  massacre  should  be  discovered.  The  traitor,  there- 
fore, hurried  out  at  the  head  of  his  band  to  meet  them. 
They  proved  to  be  eighty  pilgrims  from  Shechem,  Shiloli,' 
and  Samaria,  on  the  way  to  the  ruins  of  the  Temple  at 
Jerusalem,  which  were  still  sacred  to  them  ;  God-fearing 
descendants  of  the  Ten  Tribes,  living  among  the  heathen 
settled  in  their  land  by  Esarhaddou.'*  They  wished  to 
shew  their  unshaken  faith  and  devotion,  by  presenting 
unbloody  offerings,  such  as  did  not  need  a  priest,  on  the 
loved  spot  where  the  altar  of  Jehovah  had  stood.  ^ 

The  destruction  of  the  nation  and  of  the  sanctuary  had 
overwhelmed  them  with  grief  ;  their  beards  were  shaven, 
their  clothes  rent,  their  flesh  cut,  in  heathen  fashion,* 
and  they  were  -weeping  aloud  as  they  went.  ^     Approach- 


1  Salem.    Septuagint  and  Graf.  '  2  Kings  xvii.  2i. 

3  2  Chron.  xxx.  11  ;  xxxiv.  9. 

*  The  modern  Dervishes  sometimes,  under  religious  excitement,  cut  their  cheeks 
and  brows,  arms  and  breasts,  stripping  themselves  to  the  waist  to  do  so.  Jeremiah 
speaks  of  the  practice  more  than  once.  Thus  in  chiip.  xvi.  6,  we  read  of  men  "  cut- 
ting themselves,"  and  in  chap,  xlviii.  37,  "on  all  hands  are  gashes."  In  every  case 
this  wounding  one's  self  is  intended  as  a  sign  of  grief,  either  in  contrition  or  for  some 
great  affliction.  .^  Septuagint. 


166  THE   MURDER   OF   GEDALIAH. 

ing  with  hollow  sympathy,  Ishmael  invited  them  to  pa^ 
the  wonted  visit  to  the  governor^  and  thus  drew  them 
into  his  power.  Once  inside  the  courtyard '  of  the  resi- 
dence, the  gates  were  closed  behind  them,  and  seventy 
out  of  the  eighty  were  forthwith  massacred  ;  ten,  only, 
ransoming  their  lives  by  the  promise  of  a  heavy  payment 
in  wheat,  barley,  oil,  and  honey,  which,  they  told  him, 
they  had  stored  in  pits  unknown  except  to  themselves. 
The  seventy  corpses  were  then  thrown  into  Asa^s  well  in 
the  courtyard,  which  offered  a  ready-made  grave,  as  the 
bodies  of  our  countrymen  and  countrywomen  were  to  be 
tumbled  into  the  well  of  Cawnpore  twenty-four  centuries 
later.' 

Blind  hatred  or  jealousy  of  Gedaliah  had  urged  on  the 
author  of  this  hideous  tragedy,  which  made  any  mercy 
from  the  Chaldaeans  impossible  for  him  and  his  associates. 
He  and  they  had  wreaked  a  furious  and  mad  vengeance  on 
Gedaliah  and  all  connected  with  him,  as  the  penalty,  at 
the  hand  of  Jewish  irreconcilables,  for  having  had  any 
peaceful  relations  with  Babylon.  It  only  remained  to 
secure  a  safe  retreat  to  Baaltes,  across  the  Jordan.  But 
the  town  could  not  be  allowed  to  escape  a  visitation.  De- 
scending to  it,  therefore,  Ishmael  and  his  men  seized  all 
the  inhabitants  they  could  — including  the  daughters  of 
Zedekiah,  who  had  been  sent  by  Nebuchadnezzar  to  Mizpeh, 
as  a  place  of  safety — and  carried  them  off,  with  the  other 
prisoners,  to  Ammon.  Reports  of  the  murder  of  Gedaliah 
and  his  household  had,  however,  at  last  spread  abroad,  or 
it  may  be  that  only  the  news  of  the  carrying  off  so  many 

1  Not  city.  The  word  for  courtyard,  and  that  for  city,  are  very  much  alike  in 
Hebrew. 

'^  Jehu  appears  to  have  acted  In  the  same  way  with  the  forty-two  relatives  ol 
Ahaziah.    2  Kings  x.  14. 


THE  MURDER  OF  GEDALIAH.  167 

citizens  from  Mizpeh  had  become  known.  More  or  less  of 
the  terrible  story  very  soon  reached  Johanan,  and  the  chiefs 
associated  with  him,  who  had  vainly  tried  to  put  Gedaliah 
on  his  guard.  Starting  at  once  with  their  l)auds  in  pur- 
suit, they  overtook  the  jirisoners  and  their  captors  about 
two  miles  north  of  Mizpeh,  at  the  great  tank  or  pool  of 
Gribeon,  the  remains  of  which — about  12G  feet  long  and 
100  broad — are  still  to  be  seen,  for  such  a  company  could 
move  only  slowly.  The  sight  of  the  pursuers  was  life  to 
their  victims.  Aiding  the  attack  of  Johanan  by  rushing 
off  from  their  guards,  they  were  soon  in  safety,  and  Ishmael 
had  to  flee,  leaving  two  of  the  ten  leaders  of  his  band  slain 
on  the  field,  and  doubtless  many  of  his  men. 

It  was  useless  to  return  to  Mizpeh,  which  in  all  prob- 
ability had  been  burnt.  Those  rescued  comprised  men, 
women,  children,  and  some  of  the  eunuchs  of  Zedekiah's 
harem,  and  could  not  be  left  unprotected.  Johanan  and 
his  companions  did  not  live  at  Mizpeh,^  and  its  very  name 
was  now,  for  the  time,  a  liorror.  Besides,  the  Chaldaean 
troops  still  in  Palestine  and  Syria  would  inevitably 
sweep  down  at  once  in  wild  fury  on  the  scene  of  such  an 
audacious  and  terrible  crime,  and  might  confound  the 
innocent  with  the  guilty  in  their  revenge.  It  was  there- 
fore determined,  as  a  first  stejo,  to  retire  southwards,  with 
the  view  of  fleeing  to  Egypt,  if  necessary.  A  large  klian, 
built  by  Chimham,  the  follower  or  son  of  Barzillai, 
the  friend  of  David,  stood  near  Bethlehem,  and  was  the 
starting  point  for  travellers  to  Egypt.  Accommodation 
could  be  found  in  it,  and  leisure  gained  for  consulting  as 
to  the  next  steps  to  be  taken.  Thither,  therefore,  they 
hurried.     Among  the  fugitives  were  the  prophet  Jeremiah 

»  Jer.  xl.  13. 


IfiS  THE    MURDER   OF    GEDALIAH. 

and  hi^  faithful  attendant,  Bai-nch.  In  such  an  emergency 
it  was  natural  to  turn  for  counsel  to  one  so  venerable.  If, 
said  they,  ho  would  favour  them  by  asking  directions  from 
God  for  their  guidance,  they  would  faithfully  act  on  them. 
Their  request  met  with  immediate  compliance,  but  it  was 
ten  days  before  he  felt  able  to  give  them  any  answer. 
When  at  last  it  came,  moreover,  it  was  not  such  as  they 


Guest  House. 
Prom  a  sketch  made  by  Major  Conder,  R.E.    See  also  vol.  v.  p.  189. 

had  hoped  to  receive,  and  they  had  not  faith  enough  in  the 
prophet  to  act  boldly  on  it.  Safety,  he  told  them,  lay  in 
their  remaining  in  Judgea ;  disaster  would  follow  their 
flight  to  Egypt.  It  had  been  a  mistake  even  to  think  of 
it ;  nor  had  they  been  sincere  in  their  request  that  he 
should  inquire  for  counsel  from  God,  as  their  resolution 
had  been  already  formed.  It  was  useless  for  him  to  warn 
them  to  remain  in  the  country.     Overcome  by  terror,  and 


THE   MURDER   OF   GEDALIAH.  169 

already  determined  on  a  particular  course,  they  were  im- 
movable. Jeremiah,  they  said,  had  been  prompted  by 
Baruch  to  speak  as  he  had  done,  that  the  Chaldaeans  miglit 
seize  them  and  carry  them  off  as  slaves  to  Babylon.  Orders 
were  therefore  given  to  make  for  Egypt,  and  thither  they 
accordingly  went,  carrying  Jeremiah  with  them.  Sixteen 
miles  from  Pelusium,  the  frontier  Egyptian  town,  lay 
Tahpanhes,  or  Daphne,'  where  there  was  a  garrison,  under 
Psammetichus  I.,  for  defence  against  the  Arabs  and 
Syrians.     There  they  settled  for  the  time. 

Jeremiah  still,  however,  adhered  to  his  gloomy  fore- 
bodings, after  his  arrival  in  this  new  home.  Taking 
**  great  stones,"  he  buried  them  in  sight  of  his  countrymen 
beneath  the  mortar  with  which  a  pavement  of  bricks,  from 
a  kiln  near  at  hand,  was  being  laid  down  before  the  local 
palace  of  the  Pharaoh,  following  the  act  by  announcing  : 

"  XLIIl.  10.  Thus  saith  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  =  the  God  of  Israel,  Behold 
I  shall  send  and  fetch  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  king  of  Babylon,  My 
servant,  and  set  up  his  throne  over  these  stones  that  I  have  buried,  and 
he  will  spread  out  his  carpet  of  state  over  them.  11.  And  when  ho 
comes  he  will  smite  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  deUver  such  as  arc  for 
death  to  death;  those  for  captivity  to  captivity;  those  for  the  sword  to 
the  sword,  12.  And  I  will  kindle  fire  in  the  houses  of  the  Egyptian 
gods,  and  he  shall  burn  (the  temples)  and  carry  off  (the  gods)  captive, 
and  he  shall  wrap  the  land  of  Egypt  round  him  as  a  shepherd  wraps 
round  him  his  mantle,  a  and  he  shall  march  away  in  peace  (no  one 
molesting  him).     13.  And  he  will  break  the  obelisks  *  of  Bethshemesh, 

J  The  present  Tel  Defenneh.    Ebers,  in  Riehm,  p.  1605. 

2  Jer.  xliii.  10-13. 

3  The  shepherd  wears' over  his  shirt  of  unbleached  calico,  in  wet  or  cold  weather,  a 
thick,  warm,  sleeveless,  sack-like  outer  garment  of  camel's  hair,  invariable  as  to 
material,  shape,  and  colour— brown,  with  perpendicular  stripes.  Nebuchadnezzar 
will  array  himself  with  the  land  of  Egypt — that  is,  seize  its  spoils — as  easily  as  a 
shepherd  puts  on  this  loose,  simple  garment. 

This  illustrates  vividly  the  dress  of  John  the  Baptist  and  of  the  prophets  :  it  was 
that  of  a  poor  peasant.  *  Matzaiboth  =  sacred  pillars. 


170  THE    MURDER    OF    GEDALIAH. 

(the  house  of  the  sun, ')  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  he  will  burn  the 
houses  of  the  gods  of  the  Egyptians  with  fire." 

The  fulfilment  of  this  prediction,  as  we  shall  see,  fol- 
lowed in  due  time. 

The  flight  of  Gedaliah^s  community  to  Egypt  extin- 
guished the  last  semblance  of  a  Jewish  state.  The  work 
of  the  ten  centuries  since  Joshua  crossed  the  Jordan  had 
been  undone.  Every  Hebrew  looked  back  with  boundless 
})ride  to  the  empire  of  David  ;  but  the  sceptre  had  now 
fallen  from  the  hands  of  his  descendants,  after  they  had 
held  it  for  five  hundred  years,  and  his  people  had  no  longer 
a  country.  The  Ten  Tribes  had  been  in  exile  for  more 
than  a  century,  though  Assyria,  which  carried  them  off, 
had  been  overthrown.  A  great  many  of  the  people  of 
Judah  and  Benjamin  had  fallen  in  battle,  or  siege,  or  by 
the  other  miseries  of  war  ;  part  had  been  led  off  in  chains 
to  Chalda3a,  and,  now,  a  large  number  made  Egypt  their 
home.  Henceforth,  there  seemed  little  human  hope  that 
they  would  ever  again  take  root  in  the  land  given  by  God 
to  their  fathers.  The  murder  of  Gedaliah  had  broken  the 
continuity  of  their  national  life,  and  violently  closed  their 
history  for  the  time.  Slowly  realized,  the  greatness  of  this 
disaster  impressed  itself  deeply  on  the  people  at  large.  A 
jjublic  fast  was  apjDointed  on  the  anniversary  of  Gedaliah^s 
death,  and  has  ever  since  been  observed.  The  conscious- 
ness that  all  the  nations  around  rejoiced  at  their  ruin, 
deepened  the  bitterness  of  humiliation.  Even  then,  as  in 
all  ages  since,  the  Jew  had  made  himself  universally  hated. 
Ammon,  Moab,  Edom,  Damascus,  the  Philistines,  the  very 
Arabs  of  the  desert,  both  settled  and  nomadic,  and  the 
haughty  Phoenicians  of  the  north,  clapped  their  hands  at 

^  Heliopolia  or  On.     See  vol,  ii.  23. 


THE    SIEGE    OF   TYRE.  171 

the  downfall  of  Jerusalem.  It  needed  all  the  consolation 
of  knowing,  from  the  prophets,  that  these  nations  would 
suffer  in  their  turn,  to  make  the  situation  endurable. 
Egypt,  however,  received  the  exiles  kindly.  Jewish  colo- 
nies had  already  settled  in  it,^  and  were  being  constantly 
strengthened  by  immigrants  from  many  parts,  for,  already, 
members  of  the  ^^  dispersion  ^^  were  found  in  all  coun- 
tries, east  and  west.  Palestine  itself  contributed  many,  be- 
sides those  who  fled  with  Johanan  and  his  companions. 
Troubles  soon  followed  Gedaliah's  death ;  leaders  rising 
who  sought  to  shake  off  the  Chaldaean  yoke  ;  for  the  bulk  of 
the  humbler  classes  of  the  nation  still  remained  in  the  land, 
the  better  classes  and  the  artisans,  mainly,  having  suffered 
deportation.  Six  years  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  local 
insurrections  led  to  Nebuchadnezzar  sweeping  off  seven 
hundred  and  forty-five  more  captives  to  Babylon — doubt- 
less all  picked  men — and  many  others,  we  may  be  sure,  had 
to  flee  to  their  brethren  in  Egypt.^  By  these  successive 
reductions  of  the  population,  parts  of  Judah  were,  at  last, 
left  almost  a  desert.  '^^  The  holy  cities  were  a  wilderness  : 
Jerusalem  a  desolation."  "^  The  land  could  now  enjoy  her 
sabbaths.*  To  make  matters  worse,  in  the  south,  the  Edom- 
ites  seized  a  part  of  tlie  country,  extending  their  borders 
to  the  sea-coast,  with  or  without  permission  from  the  Chal- 
daeans. 

The  disturbances  in  Judali  after  the  murder  of  Gedaliah 
may  have  been  connected  with  the  presence  of  the  Chal- 
daeans  in  Phcenicia,  Nebuchadnezzar  having  begun  the 
siege  of  Tyre  in  B.C.  586  ;  *  two  years  after  tlie  fall  of 
Jerusalem.     This  great  military  enterprise  had  been  the 

»  Jer.  xxiT.  8.  "  Jer.  lii.  30.  '  Tsa.  Ixiv.  10. 

*  Lev.  xxvi.  34,  43.    2  Chron.  xxxvi.  21.  «  686-573,  Riehm. 


172 


THE    SIEGE    OF   TYKE. 


subject  of  a  series  of  discourses  by  Ezekiel,  delivered  to 
the  exiles  on  tlie  Chebar,  shortly  before  it  was  undertaken, 
when  the  triumph  of  the  arms  of  Babylon  over  the  Jews 
had  left  its  armies  free  to  turn  to  the  long-threatened 
capital  of  Phoenicia.  Tiie  word  of  Jehovah,  the  prophet 
tells  us,  came  to  him,  saying  : 

"XXVI.  2.  Son  of  man,*  because  Tyre  says  respecting  Jerusalem, 
*  Ha  I  the  gate  of  the  nations  is  broken   in  pieces ;  "^    the  stream  of 


Modern  Tyke. 

people  and  of  trade  is  turned  to  me ;  I  will  be  filled,  (now  that)  she  is 
laid  waste.'  3.  Therefore,  thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  Behold,  I 
come  against  thee,  0  Tyre,^  and  will  cause  many  people  to  flood  up 
against  thee,  as  the  sea  brings  up  its  waters,  (wave  upon  wave).  4. 
And  they  shall  destroy  the  walls  of  Tyre,  and  break  down  her  towers. 
I  will  also  scrape  away  her  (very)  dust  and  make  her  a  naked  rock.  5. 
She  will  be  a  place  for  the  spreading  of  nets  in  the  midst  of  the  sea, 
for  I  have  spoken,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  and  she  will  be  a  spoil  to 
the  nations.     6.  And  (towns  and  villages),  her  "daughters,"  (subject 

'  Ezek.  xxvi.  1-6. 

2  Men  from  all  parts  entered  the  gates  of  Jerusalem  to  worship  at  the  Temple.    Or 
it  may  mean,  the  trade  that  passed  through  them  from  many  parts. 

3  Insular  Tyre  is  meant.    Not  the  old  city  on  the  mainland.    The  channel  between 
the  two  was  1,800  paces  broad,  and  not  very  deep. 


THE   SIEGE   OF  TYRE. 


173 


will  shake  at  the 


to  her)  or.  the  mainland,  sliall  be  slain  by  the  sword,  ami  they  shall 
know  that  I  am  Jehovah. 

"7.  For  thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah: '  Behold,  I  will  bring  against 
Tyre,  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon,  from  the  North ;  the  king  of 
kings,  with  horses  and  chariots  and  horsemen,  and  a  great  host  and 
much  people.  8.  He  will  slay  thy  daughters  on  the  mainland  by  the 
sword,  and  he  will  raise  besieging  towers  against  thee,  and  cast  up  a 
mount  against  thee,"  9.  and  raise  a  tortoise'  against  thee.  And  the 
blow  of  his  battering  ram  will  he  direct  against  thy  walls,  and  break 
down  thy  towers  witii  his  crowbars.  10.  The  dust  raised  by  his  horse 
will  cover  Ihec,  by  reason  of  their  number;  thy  wal 
noise  of  the  liorsemen,  the  wheels,  and  the  char- 
iots, when  he  enters  thy  gates  as  men  enter  a 
breached  city.  11.  He  will  stamp  with  his 
horses'  hoofs  in  all  thy  streets ;  he  will  slay  thy 
people  with  the  sword,  and  cast  down  thy  grand 
Baal-pillars  to  the  ground.  12.  And  they  will 
plunder  thy  wealth,  and  carry  off  thy  merchan- 
dise, and  break  down  thy  walls,  and  destroy  thy 
lordly  mansicms,  and  cast  thy  stones  and  thy 
timber,  and  (the)  rubbish  (of  thy  houses),  into  the 
midst  of  the  sea.*  13.  Thus  will  I  hush  the  voice 
of  thy  songs,  and  the  murmur  of  thy  harps  will 
be  heard  no  more.  14.  And  I  will  make  thy  site 
a  bare  rock ;  thou  wilt  be  a  place  for  the  spreading 
of  nets,  and  wilt  never  be  rebuilt ;  for  I,  Jehovah, 

have  spoken,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah !  " 

Assyrian   Embroii>- 
ERED  Robes. 

The  news   of   the  destructiou  of  Tyre 
will  shock  nil  the  princes  of  maritime  lands,  far  and  near, 
and  all  the  Tyrian  colonies  on  the  mainland  of  Africa  and 
Europe,  and  in  the  islands  of  the  Mediterranean. 


»  Ezek.  xxvi.  7-14.  "^  Vol.  iv.  pp.  3.54,  ff. 

3  A  s»tructure  covered  with  hides,  or  made  of  linked  shields,  under  protection  tf 
which  tlie  besiegers  sought  to  undermine  or  dig  through  the  wall.  Riehm.  p.  436. 
Or,  it  m;iy  mean  a  cover  of  shields  linked  together,  beneath  which  the  besiegers 
approached  the  walls.     Hjivemick.    Ewald.     Hitzig.    Keil. 

*  Nebnchadnezzar  tried  to  make  a  mole  to  the  island  city  across  the  arm  of  the 
eea  between  it  and  the  mainland.  He  was  not,  however,  successful  in  this,  but  Alex- 
ander the  Great,  who  afterwards  carried  out  the  same  idea,  found  the  water  thallow 


174  THE  SIEGE   OF  TYRE. 

*•  XXVI.  15.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah  to  Tyre: '  Verily,  at  the 
report  of  thy  fall  the  coast  lands  will  tremble — when  the  dying  groan 
(in  thee),  when  slaughter  is  in  thy  midst!  16.  And  all  the  princes  of 
the  sea  will  come  down  from  their  thrones,  and  lay  aside  their  robes, 
and  put  off  their  embroidered  garments,  and  clothe  themselves  with  fear, 
and  will  sit  (in  lamentation)  on  the  earth,  and  will  tremble  unceasingly, 
and  be  appalled  at  thy  destruction.  17.  And  they  will  raise  a  song 
of  lament  for  thee,  and  say  to  thee,  '  How  hast  thou  perished,  who  wast 
frequented  by  all  the  sea  people,  the  renowned  city  which  was  mighty 
in  the  sea,  thou  and  thy  citizens,  wlio  caused  the  fear  of  her  to  rest  on 
all  the  sea  nations.  18.  How  shall  all  coasts  tremble  in  the  day  of  thy 
fall ;  the  islands  of  the  sea  be  dismayed  at  thy  passing  away  !  " 

Tyre,  swallowed  up  by  the  waves  of  the  sea,  will  sink 
into  the  kingdoms  of  the  dead,  and  vanish  for  ever  from 
the  earth. 

"  19.  For  thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  "When  I  make  thee  a  desola- 
tion, like  the  cities  that  are  not  inhabited  ;  when  I  bring  the  deep  over 
thee,  and  many  waters  cover  thee,  20.  I  shall  hurl  thee  down  to  them 
who  have  descended  to  the  pit,  to  the  people  of  old  time,  and  make 
thee  dwell  in  the  under  world,  in  the  eternal  desolations,  with  the  dead 
who  have  gone  down  to  Sheol,  that  thou  mayest  be  no  more  inhabited; 
and  I  will  create  a  (new)  Dominion  in  thy  place,  in  the  land  of  the  liv- 
ing.2  21.  I  will  give  thee  up  to  utter  destruction,  and  thou  shalt  cease 
to  be ;  though  men  seek  for  thee  thou  shalt  never  be  found  more,  says 
the  Lord  Jehovah." 

A  second  oracle  paints  the  glory  of  the  great  city  under 
the  figure  of  a  ship  of  its  own  magnificent  merchant  navy, 
which  floated  on  every  sea,  as  that  of  Britain  does  in  our 
own  age. 

All  the  earth  had  contributed  towards  the  construction 
and  outfit  of  the  splendid  vessel.  Its  rowers  and  crew 
were  supremely  skilful  and  brave,  but  to  the  dismay  of  all 

where  the  Chaldaean  king  had  thrown  the  wreck  of  the  city  into  the  waves.    Arrian, 
Anab.,  ii.  18. 

'  Ezek.  xxvi.  16-21.  '  To  what  power  could  the  prophet  refer  ? 


THE   SIEGE   OF  TYRE.  175 

men,  when  it  sailed  fortli,  it  was  wrecked  by  a  tempest 
from  the  east.  This  striking  figure  is  varied  by  the  intro- 
duction of  a  description  of  Tyre  itself,  its  trade  and 
wealth ;  but  as  much  of  the  chapter  *  has  already  been 
quoted  elsewliere,'  only  the  prophetic  picture  of  the  ship- 
wreck need  be  given  here. 

"  XXVII.  25.  Tarshish-ships*  were  thy  caravans;  *  they  carried  thy 
merchandise  (0  Tyre),  and  thus  thou  wast  made  exceeding  rich  and 
glorious  in  the  midst  of  the  sea.  2G.  (But)  thy  rowers  have  brought 
thee  out  on  the  high  sea,^  and  the  east  wind  has  broken  thee  up  in  the 
midst  of  the  ocean.  37.  Thy  riches,  thy  merchandise,  thy  goods  (for 
exchange),  thy  sailors,  thy  steersmen,  thy  ship-carpenters,  the  traders 
who  sell  and  buy  thy  cargoes,^  and  all  the  fighting  men  in  thee,  even 
all  the  multitude  on  board,  will  sink  in  the  waters,  in  the  day  of  thy 
shipwreck.  28.  The  coasts  tremble  at  the  wild  cries  of  thy  steersmen, 
29.  and  all  that  ply  the  oar,  all  sailors,  all  steersmen  of  sea-going  ships, 
(thinking  no  one  safe,  since  thou  hast  perished),  leave  their  ships  and 
get  to  the  firm  ground,  30.  and  wail  aloud  for  thee,  (in  their  terror  and 
■  sorrow),  and  weep  bitterly,  and  throw  dust  on  their  heads,  and  strew 
themselves  with  ashes,  31.  and  shave  themselves  bald  for  thee,  and 
gird  themselves  with  sackcloth,  and  weep  over  thee  in  sadness  of  heart, 
with  bitter  wailing,  32.  and  in  their  sorrow ''  raise  a  song  of  lament  for 
thee — '  0  what  city  was  like  Tyre,  like  her  that  is  made  silent  in  the 
midst  of  the  waters ! '  33.  When  thy  wares  were  borne  from  sea  to  sea, 
thou  didst  supply  the  wants  of  many  peoples;  thou  enrichedst  the 
kings  of  the  earth  with  the  greatness  of  thy  wealth  and  of  thy  wares; 
34.  but  now  thou  art  reduced  to  ruins,  and  buried  in  the  midst  of  the 
waves ;  thy  goods  and  all  thy  people  in  thee,  have  sunk  into  the  depths 
of  the  waters!  35.  All  the  inhabitants  of  distant  coasts  will  be  thun- 
derstruck (at  thy  calamity),  their  kings  will  tremble  exceedingly,  their 
countenances  will  fall.  36.  The  traders  of  other  lands  (thy  rivals)  will 
mock"  at  thee,  because  thou  wast  their  dread,^ but,  now,  hast  vanished 
forever." 

1  Ezek.  xxvii.  1-24.  a  Vol.  iii.  pp.  386,  387. 

5  Great  merchantmen,  like  our  old  "  Indiamen,"  or  more  modern  "  clippers." 

*  Ezek.  xxvii.  25-36.  *  Ps.  Ixxvii.  19. 

«  =  our  supercargo,  who  manages  all  the  commercial  affairs  of  a  trading  voyage. 
'  "Thy  sons"  =  colonies,  Eichhom.    The  words  are  very  nearly  alike. 

*  Literally,  "hiss."  »  Ps.  Ixxiii.  19. 


176  THE   SIEGE   OF  TYRE. 

In  another  discourse  anticipating  the  victory  of  Kebu- 
chadnezzar,  Ezekiel,  as  the  siege  advanced,  dwells  again  on 
the  approaching  catastrophe,  the  very  idea  of  which  was  as 
terrible  in  the  ancie'nt  world  as  that  of  London  being  razed 
to  the  ground  would  be  in  our  day.  Ithobaal  II.*  was  now 
reigning  in  Tyre,  and  is  addressed  by  the  prophet  as  per- 
sonifying his  subjects.  The  pride  and  haughtiness  of  his 
dynasty  made  him  a  fit  mark  for  stern  denunciation  ;  for, 
like  many  lines  of  ancient  kings,  it  claimed  descent  from 
the  gods,  if,  indeed,  each  monarch  did  not  arrogate  per- 
sonal divinity.*  But  ruler  and  people  will  perish  together. 
The  word  of  Jehovah,  says  Ezekiel,  came  again  to  me,  as 
follows  : 

"XXVIII.  2.  Son  of  man,^  say  to  the  king  of  Tyre — thus  says  the 
Lord  Jehovah:  Because  thy  heart  is  lifted  up  (with  pride),  and  thou 
hast  said,  '  I  am  a  god,  and  I  sit  throned  as  one,  in  the  midst  of  the 
seas,'  though  thou  art  a  man,  and  not  God,  and  because  thou  thinkest 
thy  wisdom  divine,  3.  and  boastest  that  thou  art  wiser  than  Daniel,* 
so  that  no  secret  can  hide  itself  from  thee  :  4.  and  that  thou  hast 
gained  thy  power  by  thine  own  wisdom  and  understanding,  and  (by 
them)  gathered  gold  and  silver  unto  thy  treasuries;  5.  that  it  is  by 
thy  supreme  skill  in  trading,  moreover,  that  thy  might  has  grown  so 
great,  and  because  thine  heart  is  lifted  up  at  thy  riches : 

"6.  Therefore  thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Because  thou  thinkest 
thy  understanding  like  that  of  a  god,  7.  I  will  bring  the  barbarians  * 
upon  thee,  the  fiercest  of  the  nations,  and  they  will  draw  their  swords 
against  thy  sim-like  wisdom,  and  profane  thy  divine  lustre,  8.  and  hurl 
thee  down  to  the  pit,  and  thou  shalt  die  like  the  common  men,  slain  in 
the  midst  of  the  waters.  9.  Wilt  thou  say,  '  I  am  a  god,'  before  him 
who  slays  thee,  though  thou  art  a  man  and  no  god  to  him  who  takes  thy 
life  ?  10.  Thou  shalt  die  the  death  of  the  uncircumcised,  by  the  hand 
of  barbarians,^  for  I  have  spoken,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah." 

1  Jos.,  C.  Ap.,'\.  21.  2  Ezek.  xxviii.  2.  3  Ezek.  xxviii.  2-10. 

■»  The  new  critics  evade  this  alUision  to  Daniel  by  saying  it  refers  to  some  unknown 
worthy  of  a  former  age  !  s  Literally,  "  stranger,  foreigner." 

"  The  Phcjenicians  were  apparently  circumcised  (Movers  in  Er)>ch  mid  Gniber,  vol. 
iii.  pp.  34,  431;  Herod.,  ii,  104),  and  in  this  lies  the  sting  of  the  prophet's  words.    They 


THE  SIEGE   OF  TYRE.  177 

Ere  long  the  prophet  sees  him  lying  slain,  and  raises  the 
death  lament  over  him.  Tlie  .strophes  are  keenly  sarcastic 
in  their  tone,  recounting  the  lofty  pretensions  of  the  king, 
and  descrihing  him  as  a  radiant  cherub,  covered  with  gold 
and  precious  stones,  and  set  on  the  mount  of  God  in  Eden, 
but  falling  into  sin,  and  driven  from  Paradise  to  find  a 
miserable  end. 

"XXVITT.  13.  Son  of  man' — said  the  voice  in  his  breast — raise  a 
death  song  on  the  king  of  Tyre  and  say  to  him :  Thus  says  the  Lord 
Jehovah,  O  thou  seal  and  keystone  of  the  Tyrian  States,  (closing  up 
its  perfect  arch);  full  of  wisdom  and  perfect  in  beauty!  13.  Thou 
didst  dwell  in  Eden,  the  garden  of  God,  and  wast  decked  with  all 
kinds  of  precious  stones,  the  sardine,  topaz,  diamond,  chrysolite,  onyx, 
jasper,  sapphire,  carbuncle,  beryl,  and  with  the  gorgeous  golden  robes 
made  by  thy  artificers,  for  the  day  of  thy  coronation !  ^  14.  I  set  thee 
as  a  broad- winged  cherub  on  the  holy  mount  of  God;  thou  walkedst 
within  the  stones  of  fire,  (which  enclosed  the  sacred  spot  with  a  flaming 
wall).*  15.  In  thine  early  days  *  (when  still,  as  a  cherub,  unf alien  and 
pure),  thou  wast  blameless,  (but  thy  pride  has  led  thee  to  sin,  and  thou 
art  no  longer  thus  innocent),  since  thy  corruption  has  shewn  itself  in 

imply  that  he  would  have  no  lament  raised  for  him,  and  that  his  corpse  would  be  left 
unwashed,  undressed  with  grave  clothes,  and  perhaps  unburied— the  deepest  indig- 
nity to  any  one,  far  more  to  a  king,  in  ancient  times. 

1  Ezek.  xxviii.  12-15. 

9  This  passage  is  very  dark.  Keil  translates  it  "  the  service  of  thy  tabrets  and  of 
thy  wives  was  with  thee  ;  on  the  day  when  thou  wast  created  (king)  were  they  ready." 
The  drums  or  tabrets  are  held  to  be  an  allusion  to  the  state  and  glory  of  his  accession  ; 
the  wives,  to  his  inheriting  the  harem  of  his  predeces.-or.  I  have  followed  the  ren- 
dering of  Eichhorn  mainly.  The  Septuagint  reads,  "  With  gold  thou  hast  filled  thy 
treasures  and  store-houses." 

'  "  I  set  thee  beside  the  cherub  on  the  holy  mount  of  God,  thoa  wast  in  the  midst 
of  the  flaming  stones."    Septuagint. 

This  seems  to  be  a  poetical  introduction  of  the  Eastern  mythical  concej)tion  of 
"the  mount  of  the  assembly  (of  the  gods),"  Isa.  xiv.  13,  the  Olympos  of  the  Greeks 
and  of  the  Accadians,  by  whom  it  was  called  "  The  Mountain  of  the  East."  Its  peak 
was  the  pivot  on  which  the  sky  rested,  and  hence  it  was  known,  also,  as  "The  Mount 
of  the  World."  It  lay  far  away  to  the  north-east,  and  was  the  supposed  entrance  to 
the  lower  world.  This  fabled  sacred  mountain  was  the  Meru  of  the  Hindoos,  the 
Albordsch  of  the  Persians,  and  the  Asgard  of  the  ancient  Germans.  Instead  of  the 
flaming  sword  of  Genesis,  it  is  guarded  by  the  fire-flashes  of  flaming  stones  encircling 
it  with  a  wall  *  Literally,  "  creation." 

VOL.  VI.-13 


178  THE   SIEGE   OF  TYRE. 

thee.*  16.  Through  the  greatness  of  thy  commerce  thy  soul'  was 
filled  with  evil,  and  thus  thou  sinnedst.  Therefore  I  will  cast  thee 
out  of  the  mount  of  God,  and  will  destroy  thee,^  0  guardian  cherub, 
from  within  the  walls  of  flaming  stones.  17.  Thy  heart  lifted  itself 
up  (proudly),  because  of  thy  prosperity.*  Thou  hast  spoiled  thy  wis- 
dom through  thy  glory  corrupting  thee ;  I  will  hurl  thee  to  the  dust, 
I  will  make  thee  a  sight  before  kings.  18.  Through  the  multitude  of 
thy  sins,  in  thine  imrighteous  trading,  thou  hast  defiled  thy  sanctu- 
aries ;  ^  therefore  I  will  cause  fire  to  burst  out  of  thy  midst,  and  it  will 
devour  thee,  and  reduce  thee  to  ashes  on  the  earth,  before  all  who  see 
thee.  19.  All  that  know  thee  among  the  nations  shall  be  horrified  at 
thee;  thou  shalt  be  a  terror  (to  them)  and  shalt  cease  for  ever." 

Sidon,  which  was  closely  related  to  Tyre,  conld  not 
expect  to  escape  the  storm  of  war  which  had  burst  on 
the  great  city.  An  oracle,  therefore,  announces  its  fate 
also. 

"XXVIII.  21.  Son  of  man — said  the  Divine  Voice — set  thy  face 
against  Sidon  and  prophesy  against  it,  22.  saying,  Thus  saith  the  Lord 
Jehovah :  Behold,  I  am  (coming)  against  thee,  0  Sidon :  and  will  glo- 
rify Myself  on  thee,  that  men  may  know  that  I  am  Jehovah,  when  I 
execute  judgments  on  her,  and  have  shewn  My  holiness  in  her.  23.  I 
will  send  pestilence  into  her  and  blood  into  her  streets,  and  the  slain 
shall  fall  in  her  by  the  sword,  which  shall  press  in  on  her  from  every 
side,  and  they  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah." 

The  prophet  closes  the  long  roll  of  denunciations  of  the 
heathen  nations  round  Israel,  by  an  assurance  of  God's 
favour  to  His  ancient  people,  to  cheer  them  in  their 
humiliation  and  exile. 

'  The  whole  passage  is  an  imaginative  parallel  of  the  Prince  of  Tyre  with  Adam. 
Eden,  the  cherubs,  the  creation  in  innocence,  and  the  Fall,  all  indeed  that  is  recorded 
in  the  opening  of  Genesis,  were  thus  familiar  in  the  days  of  Ezekiel,  a  fact  to  ponder 
in  connection  with  the  new  criticism. 

2  Treasuries:  Septuagint.    Literally,  "inner parts."    Ezek.  xxviii.  16-23. 

'  The  covering  cherub  has  driven  thee,  etc.     Septuagint. 

*  Literally,  "beauty." 

6  The  Tyrian  State  is  conceived  as  the  Paradise  on  the  Mount  of  God,  to  which  the 
prince  was  the  protecting  cherub.  Its  sanctuaries  he  had  defiled  by  the  sins  of  his 
great  mercantile  city. 


THE   SIEGE   OF  TYRE.  179 


to  pierce  thoo,  of  all  (the  nations)  round  thee,  that  despised  thee,  but 
tlrey  shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord  Jehovah." 

A  promise  to  the  exiles,  that  God  would  bring  them 
back  again  to  their  own  land,  after  the  destruction  of  the 
enemies,  who  now  trampled  over  tliem,  concludes  this 
oracle. 

"35.  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  When  I  gather  the  house  of 
Israel  from  oui  of  all  the  nations  among  whom  they  are  now  scattered, 
and  shall  have  shewn  Myself  holy  in  them,  in  the  sight  of  the  heathen, 
then  shall  they  dwell  in  their  land  which  I  gave  to  My  servant  Jacob. 
26.  There  they  will  dwell  in  safety,  and  build  houses,  and  plant  vine- 
yards, and  live  in  peace,  when  I  have  executed  judgments  on  all  that 
despise  them  round  about ;  and  they  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah 
their  God." 

Tyre  was  founded  about  2,750  years  before  Christ, 
according  to  the  statements  of  its  priests  to  Herodotus. 
It  is  spoken  of  in  the  Book  of  Joshua  as  '^  the  strong 
city/'' "  It  seems  first  to  have  suffered  from  the  spread 
of  the  Assyrian  empire,  in  B.C.  869;  payment  of  tribute 
by  it  to  King  Assur-nazir-pal  being  then  recorded.  In 
840  we  find  it  buying  off  Shalmaneser  II.  by  payment  of 
large  sums,  and  again  in  742,  a  century  later,  ransoming 
itself  in  the  same  way  from  the  armies  of  Tiglath-Pileser 
II.  or  Pul.  A  little  later  it  revolted  from  that  monarch, 
and  had  to  pay  a  fine  of  150  talents  of  gold,  weighing 
about  three  tons,  and  worth  perhaps  twenty  times  as  much 
as  at  present.  Its  first  siege,  so  far  as  we  know,  was  that 
of  Shalmaneser  IV".  and  Sargon.  The  city  on  the  main- 
land was  destroyed,  but  that  on  the  island  of  Tyre  held  out 
for  five  years.  This  siege  ended  about  720,  and  was  fol- 
lowed by  great  prosperity  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years. ^ 

*  Eaek.  aucviii.  24-26.  ^  Josh.  xix.  29.  ^  See  Ezek.  xxvii. 


180  THE   SIEGE   OP  TYKE. 

The  siege  of  Tyre,  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  had  begun  very 
soon  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem.  Unfortunately,  our  in- 
formation respecting  it,  though  it  lasted  thirteen  years, 
from  B.C.  586  to  b.c,  573,  is  very  scanty.  It  is  thrice 
mentioned  by  Josephus,^  but  he  does  not  speak  of  the 
result.  The  silence  of  the  Tyrian  historians  on  this  point, 
is,  however,  a  striking  proof  that  it  must  have  ended 
ingloriously  for  their  city.  If  the  defence  had  been  suc- 
cessful, it  would  assuredly  have  been  loudly  proclaimed. 
But  though  Nebuchadnezzar  took  the  city,  it  appears, 
from  a  passage  in  Ezekiel,'  that  he  did  not  give  it  up  to 
pillage,  and  thus  gravely  disappointed  his  soldiers,  who 
had  counted  on  sacking  it,  as  a  compensation  for  the  toils 
and  danger  ^  of  the  prolonged  siege.  Possibly  a  treaty 
may  have  been  made,  securing  its  being  spared  the 
horrors  of  storming  and  plunder,  in  consideration  of  such 
humiliating  conditions  of  heavy  tribute  as  were  familiar 
to  the  Phoenicians  in  similar  conjunctures.  Egypt,  in- 
deed, is  said  by  Ezekiel*  to  be  given  to  the  Chaldaean 
monarch  as  a  reward  for  having  done  against  Tyre  what 
Providence  had  designed.  But  if  Jerome  be  right,  it  is 
not  necessary  to  suppose  any  compromise.  **  Nebuchad- 
nezzar,''  he  tells  us,'  '^when  he  besieged  Tyre,  and  could 

1  Jos.,  AtiL,  X,  ix.  1.     a  Ap.,  i.  19,  21.  '  Ezek.  xxix.  17-20. 

»  Movers,  p.  448.  It  is  satisfactory  to  note  that  Winer,  Eealw.,  vol.  ii.  p.  638,  and 
Hitzig,  Jes.,  p.  273,  Ezech.,  p.  227,  speak  of  Nebuchadnezzar  as  having  taken  insular 
Tyre.  Some  take  for  granted,  from  Ezek.  xxix.  18,  that  the  siege  had  failed  ;  but  if 
it  had,  the  Chaldaean  king  could  not  have  marched  on  to  the  conquest  of  Egypt.  It 
must  have  been  successful,  though  the  city  was  spared  the  horrors  of  a  sack.  No 
cuneiform  record  of  the  campaigns  of  Nebuchadnezzar  against  Jiulah  and  Tyre  has 
yet  been  discovered  ;  but  a  curious  inscription,  carved  by  his  orders  on  the  rocks  of 
the  Dog  River,  about  eight  miles  north  of  Beiriit,  came  to  light  about  two  years  ago. 
Unfortunately,  it  is  much  worn,  and  the  best  preserved  passage  speaks  only  of  the 
famous  wines  of  Lebanon  and  Helbon,  though  a  "  squeeze  "  of  it,  which  I  saw  in  the 
house  of  its  discoverer,  the  Danish  consul  at  Beirflt,  shews  it  to  have  been  very  large. 

*  Ezek.  xxix.  20.  »  Hier.  in  Ezek.  ad  loc. 


THE   SIEGE   OF  TYRE.  181 

not  bring  up  his  rams,  towers,  and  tortoises,  because  it 
was  surrounded  by  the  sea,  ordered  the  vast  multitude  of 
his  army  to  carry  stones  and  materials  for  a  mole,  and 
having  filled  up  the  narrow  interval  of  sea  (between  it 
and  the  mainland),  made  a  continuous  path  to  the  island. 
The  Tyrians  seeing  this  now  completed,  and  perceiving 
that  the  foundations  of  the  walls  were  being  shaken  by 
the  blows  of  the  battering  rams,  carried  off  in  ships,  to 
various  islands,  wliatever  was  valuable  in  the  shape  of 
gold,  silver,  or  goods,  so  that  when  the  city  fell,  Nebu- 
chadnezzar should  find  no  reward  for  his  labours/'  There 
is  evidence,  moreover,  that  Tyre  was  henceforth  ruled  by 
princes  strictly  tributary  to  Babylon,  some  of  them  being 
even  sent  from  the  Chaldaean  capital,'  and  by  the  Persian 
kings  after  the  Chaldaean  dynasty  had  fallen. 

But  though  Tyre  was  thus  taken,  as  Ezekiel  had  pre- 
dicted, his  prophecy  tliat  it  would  be  razed  to  the  ground 
till  its  site  became  a  bare  rock,  on  which  men  would  spread 
their  nets,  proved  to  refer  to  a  later  period.  Nor  is  it 
wonderful  that  this  should  be  so,  since  the  time  of  the 
fulfilment  of  their  prophecies  is  expressly  said  to  have 
been  withheld  from  the  seers  divinely  inspired  to  utter 
them.  In  B.C.  332,  the  island  city  was  attacked  by  Alex- 
ander, and  for  the  time  crushed.  Using  the  ruins  of  old 
Tyre  on  the  mainland  to  build  a  mole  by  which  his  soldiers 
could  reach  the  island,  he  took  the  still  virgin  fortress  in 
seven  months,  and  sold  30,000  of  the  inhabitants  as  slaves. 
Still  it  was  not  destroyed.  Regaining  its  commercial  glory 
after  a  while,  it  continued  even  in  the  days  of  St.  Jerome, 
in  the  fourth   century  after   Christ,"  to  be  "  one    of   the 

»  Fragment  of  Menander,  quoted  by  Josephus,  C.  Ap..,  i.  21. 
»  Jerome,  on  Ezek.  xxvii. 


182  THE   SIEGE   OF  TYRE. 

noblest,  and  most  beautiful  of  cities/^  Its  conversion  to 
Christianity,  in  the  general  sense  always  implied  in  speak- 
ing of  great  communities,  was  then  already  an  accom- 
plished fact.  St.  Paul,  indeed,  had  found  a  Christian 
church  in  it.*  In  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century 
Methodius  was  its  bishop,  and  in  315  a  great  church  was 
built  in  it  by  Eusebius  of  Caesarea.  In  335,  a  famous 
Synod  was  held  within  its  walls.  Under  the  Crusaders 
it  had  an  archbishop,  and  was  still  spoken  of  as  a  '^  most 
noble  city.^'^  In  1291,  however,  it  was  retaken  by  the  Sara- 
cens, and  from  that  time  it  has  sunk  into  utter  decay. 
Even  its  ruins  have  been  in  great  part  removed.  Last 
century,  when  Hasselquist  visited  it,  he  found  it  had  only 
ten  inhabitants.  The  ruins  now  seen  on  the  peninsula  of 
Tyre  are  those  of  the  buildings  of  Crusaders  or  Saracens. 
Tyre  of  the  Pha3nicians,  if  any  of  it  still  remains,  lies  below 
the  wreck  of  the  city  of  the  Crusaders,  and  of  that  of  Mo- 
hammedan and  Christian  Tyre.  The  Tyre  of  the  present 
day,  a  place  of  from  3,000  to  4,000  inhabitants,  stands  on 
the  dam  built  by  Alexander  the  Great,  which  has  increased 
to  a  broad  isthmus,  by  the  sand  thrown  up  by  the  sea. 
The  houses  are  mostly  mud  huts,  and  the  streets,  crooked 
and  filthy  passages.  Outside  the  town  gate,  the  rubbish  of 
the  old  city  covers  the  ground  for  nearly  two  miles,  and 
the  harbour  is  so  sanded  up  and  filled  with  the  wreck 
of  the  ancient  city,  that  only  small  boats  can  enter.  Part 
of  Tyre  is  under  the  sea  ;  the  rest  of  it  beneath  the 
ground.  Eor  many  feet  deep,  the  soil  is  a  mass  of  building 
stones,  shafts  of  pillars  and  fragments  of  marble,  etc. 
Thus  it  has  become  "  a  heap  of  ruins  " — a  bare  rock  in  the 
sea  on  which  to  spread  nets.     Its  shadowy  resurrection  is 

1  Acta  xxi.  3,  4.  ^  joh.  Wirziburgensis,  c.  a.d.  1125. 


THE   SIEGE   OF   TYRE.  183 

due  to  the  fancy  of  a  fanatical  sect  of  Mohammedans,  called 
Metawileh,  who  came  to  the  then  deserted  spot,  towards 
the  end  of  last  century,  and  began  to  raise  huts  for  them- 
selves, with  the  ruins  lying  round.  Ancient  Tyre  stood  on 
reefs  and  islands,  forming,  together,  an  area  of  about  two 
hundred  acres,  with  two  harbours,  each  of  about  twelve 
acres,  or  half  as  large  as  the  harbour  of  Sidon. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE   JEWISH    COLONIES    IN"    EGYPT 

While  Nebuchadnezzar  was  detained  year  after  year  in 
Phoenicia,  the  immigration  of  Jews  to  Egypt  steadily  in- 
creased, till  colonies  were  formed  not  only  at  Tahpanhes, 
but  at  Migdol,  twelve  miles  from  Pelusium  ;  at  Noph  or 
Memphis  in  the  Delta,  and  in  the  land  of  Pathros,  which 
was  the  name  for  Upper  Egypt  generally,  and  especially 
for  a  quarter  of  Thebes  and  the  country  round  it/  Exile 
from  their  country  had  not  improved  them.  Instead  of 
seeking  Jehovah,  they  went  back  to  the  idolatries  of  their 
fathers,,  refusing  to  listen  to  Jeremiah,  though  recognized 
as  a  true  prophet.  Taking  advantage,  therefore,  of  a 
great  gathering  of  his  people,  at  an  idolatrous  festival  in 
Upper  Egypt,  the  aged  seer  once  more  warned  them  of  the 
ruinous  consequences  of  such  a  course. 

"  XLIV.  2.  Thus  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts, ^  the  God  of  Israel  (cried 
he):  ye  have  seen  all  the  evil  that  I  have  brought  on  Jerusalem  and  all 
the  towns  of  Judah;  behold,  they  are  desolate  to-day,  without  an  in- 
habitant, 3.  because  of  their  wickedness  which  they  did,  to  provoke  Me 
to  anger  by  going  (to  idols),  to  burn  incense  (before  them),  and  serving 
other  gods  which  neither  they,  ye,  nor  your  fathers  knew.  4.  I  sent 
you  all  My  servants,  the  prophets ;  sent  them  eagerly  and  constantly ; 
and  caused  them  to  say  to  you:  '  Oh,  do  not  this  abomination,  which 
I  hate.'  5.  But  they  would  not  listen  or  inclme  their  ear,  to  turn 
from  their  wickedness,  and  not  burn  incense  to  other  gods.  6.  Where- 
fore My  indignation   and   My  fierce  wrath  poured  itself  forth,  and 

•'  Pathros,  in  Riehm.    See  Jer.  xliv.  1-15.  ^  Jer.  xliv.  8-6. 


THE   JEWISH    COLONIES   IN    EGYPT.  185 

flamed  throughout  the  cities  of  Judah  and  the  streets  of  Jerusalem, 
and  they  were  turned  into  desolation  and  loneliness,  as  they  now  are. 
7.  And  now,'  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  the  God  of  Israel:  Why  do  ye 
commit  so  great  wrong  against  yourselves,  (in  the  face  of  such  warn- 
ings), (by  acting  in  a  way  that  must  end)  in  cutting  off  man  and 
woman,  child  and  suckling,  from  Judah,  leaving  you  no  survivors  (to 
preserve  your  name)  ?  8.  Why  do  ye  stir  Me  to  wrath  by  your  con- 
duct in  burning  incense  to  strange  gods,  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  to 
which  ye  have  come  for  a  time — to  draw  down  on  yourselves  destruc- 
tion, and  caus6  yourselves  to  be  made  a  curse  "^  and  a  contempt  to  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth  ? 

"  9.  Have  ye  (already)  forgotten  the  wickedness  of  your  fathers,  and 
of  the  kings  of  Judah  and  their  wives,'  and  your  own  wickedness  and 
that  of  your  wives,  which  they  committed  in  the  land  of  Judah,  and 
in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem?  10.  Yet  they  are  not  penitent*  (for  all 
this),  even  now,  and  have  neither  feared  My  law  and  My  statutes,  that 
I  set  before  you  and  your  fathers,  nor  walked  in  them.  11.  Therefore 
says  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  the  God  of  Israel:  Behold,  I  set  My  face 
against  you  i or  evil,  to  cut  off  all  Judah.  13.  And  will  sweep  away 
the  remnant  of  it,  who  have  set  their  faces  to  go  into  the  land  of 
Egypt,  to  live  there  for  a  time.  They  will  be  destroyed  and  fall  in 
Egypt ;  they  will  perish,  small  and  great,  by  the  sword  and  by  famine, 
and  will  become  a  curse,  an  astonishment,  an  execration,  and  a  scorn. 
13.  For  1  will  punish  them  that  dwell  in  Egypt  as  I  punished  Jeru- 
salem, by  sword,  famine,  and  pestilence.  14.  None  of  the  remnant  of 
Judah  who  have  gone  into  Egypt,  to  dwell  there  awhile,  shall  escape 
or  survive,  to  go  back  to  the  land  of  Judah,  whither  their  souls  yearn 
to  return;  only  some  fugitives  will  do  so." 

But  Jeremiah's  appeals  and  threats  were  equally  vain. 
Among  the  great  multitude  he  addressed,  no  voice  was 
lifted  in  favour  of  a  return  to  Jehovah.  In  the  idolatrous 
festival  they  had  gathered  to  observe,  the  women  took  a 
leading  part,  contrary  to  the  custom,  which  forbade  their 

^  Jer.  xliv.  7-14. 

a  Men  would  imprecate  a  similar  fate  to  theirs,  on  those  towards  whom  they 
wished  evil. 

s  Hebrew,  "■his  wives"  =  the  wives  of  each.  The  Septuagint  has  "his  princes," 
which  is  adopted  by  Ewald  and  Eichhorn. 

*  Literally,  '-bruised." 


186  THE   JEWISH   COLOinES   IN   EGYPT. 

sex  mingling  in  public  with  men;  and  so  far  from  con- 
fessing guilt,  they  were  ready  to  defend  their  conduct.* 

"  XLIV.  16.  '  With  respect  ^  to  what  you  have  told  us  in  the  name 
of  Jehovah,'  said  their  representative,  *  we  shall  not  listen  to  you, 
17.  but  shall  assuredly  do  what  we  please,  burning  incense  to  the 
queen  of  heaven,^  and  pouring  out  drink-offerings*  to  her,  as  we  have 
done  (in  the  past),  we  and  our  fathers,  our  kings  and  our  princes,  in 
the  towns  of  Judah  and  the  streets  of  Jerusalem;  for  then  we  had 
plenty  of  food  and  were  prosperous,  and  saw  no  trouble.  18.  But 
since  (Josiah's  days,  when)  we  left  off  burning  incense  to  the  queen  of 
heaven,  and  pouring  out  drink-offerings  to  her,  we  have  been  in  want 
of  everything,  and  have  been  destroyed  by  sword  and  famine.  19. 
Moreover,  when  we,  (women),  burn  incense  to  the  queen  of  heaven, 
and  pour  out  drink-offerings  to  her,  we  do  so  with  the  full  knowledge 
of  our  husbands,*  both  as  to  our  making  cakes  in  her  image,®  and 
pouring  out  offerings  to  her." 

To  this  Jeremiah  promptly  replied,  that  though  the 
national  misfortunes  were  thus  ascribed  to  the  prohibition 
by  Josiah,  of  moon-worship  and  other  idolatries,  they  were 
rather  the  result  of  the  re-introduction  of  these  supersti- 
tions, with  their  inevitably  attendant  moral  corruption. 

"21.  (How?')  Has  Jehovah  then  forgotten  your  often-repeated 
offering  of  incense,  burned  in  the  towns  of  Judah,  by  you,  and  your 

I  The  words  (Jer.  xliv.  15),  "  All  the  people  that  dwell  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  in 
Pathros,  answered  Jeremiah,"  illustrates  the  similar  expression  in  the  Pentateuch, 
tliat  all  the  people  assembled  before  Moses  and  were  addressed  by  him.  The  mean- 
ing in  both  cases  is,  that  a  great  number,  who  in  a  manner  represented  the  whole, 
were  present.  2  Jer.  xliv.  16-19. 

3  The  moon,  or  the  planet  Venus.  Jer.  vii.  17-18  ;  see  vol.  v.  pp.  33-36.  The  god- 
dess Astarte  was  the  personification  of  the  moon  (Baudisson,  in  Herzog,  2te  Aufg., 
vol.  X.  p.  216) ;  or  perhaps  Venus,  as  the  star  that  leads  the  moon  to  her  husband, 
the  sun  (Baudisson  in  Herzog,  2te  Aufg.,  vol.  i.  p.  721).  In  either  case,  the  moon  was 
"  the  queen  of  heaven."  But  it  is  a  question  whether  Astarte,  whom  the  Jewesses  so 
devoutly  worshipped,  was  the  moon  or  Venus.  The  supposition  that  she  represented 
the  latter,  has  led  Venus  to  be  supposed  "  the  queen  of  heaven,"  by  some. 

*  Drink-offerings  of  wine.  *  Num.  xxx.  6,  7. 

"  A  Phoenician  sacrificial  tariff,  found  lately  in  Cyprus,  mentions  as  one  item  of 
the  temple  accounts,  "For  two  bakers  who  baked  the  cakes  for  the  (holy)  queen  (of 
heaven)."  7  j^r.  xliv.  21. 


THE   JEWISH    COLONIES   IK    EGYPT. 


187 


fathers,  your  kings,  and  your  princes?    (Have  they  not  rather  sunk 

into  His  heart),  23.  so  that  Jehovah  could  no  longer  bear  you,»  because 

of  the  evil  of  your  doings  and  the  abominations  ye  committed,  and  is 

it  not  on  their  account  that  your  land  is  now  desolate  and  a  curse,  and 

without    an    inhabitant?      23.   (Yes! 

it  is  just)  because   you   have  burned 

incense  and  sinned  against  Jehovah, 

and  have  not    obeyed  the    voice   of 

Jehovah,    nor    walked    in    His    law, 

statutes,    and   testimonies,    that    the 

evil  ye  now  endure  has  come  upon 

you." 

But  their  past  and  present 
sufferings  were  not  aU  they 
would  suffer  for  their  apostasy 
from  Jehovah.  Still  worse  was 
to  follow. 

"24.  Hear  the  word  of  Jehovah, 
all  Judah,  (both  men  and  women), 
who  are  in  the  land  of  Egypt.  25. 
Thus  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  the 
God  of  Israel:  Ye  and  your  wives, 
(before  Me),  have  carried  out  with 
your  hands  (now  bearing  sacred 
cakes    for    the    moon    goddess)    the 

words  of  your  lips,  when  ye  said,  '  We  shall  assuredly  pay  the  vows 
we  have  made,  to  burn  incense  to  the  queen  of  heaven,  and  pour  out 
drink-offerings  to  her.'  Perform  your  vows  by  all  means  ;  fail  not 
to  do  so !  26.  But  hear  the  word  of  Jehovah  to  all  Judah  that  dwell 
in  the  land  of  Egypt :  Behold,  I  have  sworn  by  My  great  name,  says 
Jehovah:  Verily  it  shall  no  more  be  uttered  by  any  man  of  Judah  in 
all  Egypt,  saying,  '  As  the  Lord  Jehovah  lives ; '  27.  for,  behold,  I 
will  watch  over  them  to  do  them  evil,  not  good,  so  that  all  the  men  of 
Judah  that  are  in  Egypt  shall  perish  by  the  sword  and  famine,  till 
they  are  all  gone.  28,  For  they  that  escape  the  sword,  and  return  out 
of  Egypt  to  Judah,  will  be  very  few,  and  all  the  remnant  of  Judah 


IsTAR  AsTARTE,  Or  Ashtoreth. 
For  another  figure  of  the  goddess,  see 
vol.  V.  p.  34. 


1  Jer.  xliv.  22-28. 


188  THE   JEWISH   COLONIES   IK   EGYPT. 

that  have  come  to  Egypt,  to  sojourn  in  it  for  a  time,  shall  know  whose 
word  shall  stand.  Mine  or  theirs.  29.  And  that  ye  may  know  that  My 
word  spoken  against  you,^  to  your  hurt,  shall  be  carried  out,  let  this 
serve  as  a  sign  to  you,  says  Jehovah :  30.  Behold,  I  will  give  Pharaoh- 
Hophra,  king  of  Egypt,  into  the  hand  of  his  enemies  "^  and  into  the 
hand  of  those  who  seek  his  life,  as  I  gave  Zedekiah,  king  of  Judah, 
into  the  hand  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon,  his  mortal  foe." 

The  ruin  of  the  Egyptian  king  under  whom  the  fugitive 
Jews  had  taken  refuge,  became  from  this  time  a  frequent 
subject  with  the  two  prophet-exiles,  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel, 
in  the  valley  of  the  Nile  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Chebar. 

Tyre  had  been  besieged  by  Nebuchadnezzar  only  as  a 
step  towards  the  conquest  of  Egypt,  now  the  great  ally 
of  the  Phoenicians  against  Babylon,  as,  in  former  times, 
against  Assyria.  Till  the  great  trading  city  was  humbled, 
it  would  have  been  perilous  to  invade  the  valley  of  the 
Nile;  but  the  determination  of  the  Great  King  to  follow 
up  the  submission  of  Tyre  by  marching  against  Pharaoh, 
was  not  concealed.  Tlie  question  of  supremacy  in  Western 
Asia  must  be  finally  settled.  As  to  the  issue,  it  could 
hardly  be  doubtful,  for  tiie  legions  of  Egypt  could  not 
hope  to  resist  the  terrible  hosts  of  Ohaldaea,  under  a  king 
who  was  the  greatest  general  of  the  age.  It  would  not 
excite  surprise,  therefore,  wlien  Jeremiah,  always  the  op- 
ponent of  the  Pharaoh,  and  loyal  to  Babylon,  made  the 
announcement,  as  the  siege  of  Tyre  drew  near  its  end, 
that  the  Chakhean  would  come  and  smite  the  land  of  the 
Nile.^ 

While  the  inevitable  overthrow  of  the  kingdom  of 
the  Pharaohs,  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  was  thus  proclaimed 
in  Jerusalem   and    in   Egypt    itself,   Ezekiel    sounded    its 

^  Jer.  xliv.  29-30. 

2  He  was  murdered  by  Amaais,  as  will  be  seen  hereafter.  ^  Jer.  xlvi.  13 


THE   JEWISH   COLO^q^TES   IN   EGYPT.  189 

doom  from  the  banks  of  the  Chebar.  Already,  before 
the  fall  of  the  Holy  City,  he  had  foreseen  and  repeatedly 
announced  the  conquest  of  the  Nile  valley  as  the  certain 
issue  of  that  monarch's  campaigns  in  Syria/  Tyre  on 
the  mainland  had  yielded  to  the  Ohaldaean  arms  almost 
at  the  same  time  as  the  capital  of  Judah,'  and  the  island 
city  of  Tyre,  which  afterwards  made  so  long  a  defence, 
alone  resisted  his  arms  in  Syria.  The  Great  King  had 
awaited  at  Riblah  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  before  beofinnins: 
this  final  effort,  little  dreaming  it  would  task  his  resources 
as  it  did.^  Yet  the  issue  could  not  be  doubted  by  the 
kingdoms  which  had  fallen,  one  after  the  other,  before 
the  great  conqueror.  The  thirteen  years  of  the  siege 
were  partly  utilized  to  chastise  the  refractory  peoples  of 
Palestine — Ammon,  Mocib,  Edom,  the  Philistines,  and 
Damascus,  with  tlic  Arabs  round  * — thus  fulfilling  the 
predictions  of  the  prophets  against  these  nations  ;  but 
their  subjugation,  and  that  of  insular  Tyre,  Avere  only 
steps  towards  the  ultimate  conquest  of  Egypt,  the  ancient 
rival  for  the  dominion  of  Western  Asia. 

The  siege  had  hardly  commenced  before  Ezekiel  de- 
stroyed the  last  hopes  of  the  Egyptian  faction  in  Baby- 
lonia, by  renewing  his  warning,  that  Pharaoh,  so  far  from 
being  able  to  help  Judah,  was  doomed. 

"XXXII.  2.  Son  of  man*  (said  the  Divine  Voice  to  him,  about  the 
beginning  of  B.C.  584),"  raise  a  lamentation^  for  Pharaoh,  king  of 
Egypt,  and  say  to  him :  Thou  wast  like  a  young  lion  among  the  nations ; 

»  Ezek.  xxix.  1-16  ;  xxx.  20-26  ;  xxxi.  1-18. 

2  Rfietschi  in  Herzog,  2te  Auf.,  art.  "•  Nebncadnezar."  Jer.  xxvii.  51,  59.  Ezek. 
xxxii.  30. 

3  Fall  of  Jerusalem,  b.c.  586  ;  Biege  of  Tyre,  b.c.  585-572.    Rtletschi. 

*  Ezek.  XXV.    Jos.,  Ant.,  X.  ix.  7.  *  Ezek.  xxxii.  2. 

•  Twelfth  month  of  the  twelfth  year  of  the  Captivity.  Sineud  says,  March,  b.c. 
584.  '  Ae  over  the  dead. 


190  THE   JEWISH   COLONIES   IN"   EGYPT. 

thou  wast  like  a  great  crocodile  in  the  waters  (of  thy  land);  thou  dash- 
edst  through  thy  streams,*  and  troubledst  the  waters  with  thy  feet,  and 
tossedst  up 2  their  floods.'  3.  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  I  will 
spread  out  My  net  over  thee,  by  the  help  of  many  nations,  and  they 
shall  draw  thee  out  (of  thy  waters)  in  My  net.*  4.  And  I  will  cast  thee 
down  on  the  land ;  I  will  sling  thee  out  on  the  face  of  the  open  ground, 
and  make  all  the  birds  of  heaven  light  and  stay  on  thee,  (to  devour 
thee),  and  I  will  fill  the  wild  beasts  of  the  whole  earth  with  thee.  5. 
And  I  will  strew  thy  flesh  on  the  mountains,  (round)  and  fill  the  valleys 
with  thy  foul  carcass.  6.  I  will  also  soak  the  land  in  which  thou 
swimmest,  even  to  the  mountains,  (with  the  gushing  out  of  thy  blood) ; 
the  torrent-beds  ^  will  be  filled  with  it.  7.  And  when  I  quench  thy 
light,  I  will  darken  the  heaven  and  its  stars;  I  will  veil  the  sun  with 
clouds,  and  the  moon  will  not  give  her  light,  8.  All  the  shining  lights 
in  heaven  will  I  make  black  over  thee,  and  pour  darkness  over  thy 
land,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah. 

"9.  I  will  trouble  the  heart  of  many  peoples,  when  I  publish  thy 
destruction  among  the  nations,  in  lands  which  thou  hast  not  known. 
10.  I  will  paralyze  many  peoples  with  fear  through  thy  fate;  their 
kings  will  shake  with  terror  at  it,  when  I  brandish  My  sword  before 
their  eyes ;  and  they  will  tremble  continually,  each  for  his  own  life,  in 
the  day  of  thy  fall.  11.  For  thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  The  sword 
of  the  king  of  Babylon  will  smite  thee.  12.  By  the  swords  of  mighty 
men — the  fiercest  of  the  nations,  all  of  them — will  I  overthrow  thy 
multitude ;  and  they  will  lay  waste  all  that  lifts  itself  up  proudly  in 
Egypt,  and  all  its  multitude  will  be  destroyed.  13.  And  I  will  destroy 
all  its  cattle  from  beside  its  many  waters,"  so  that  no  foot  of  man  nor 
hoof  of  beast  shall  trouble  these  waters  more.  14.  After  that  I  will 
make  them  settled  and  grow  clear,^  and  their  canals  flow  like  oil,  says 
the  Lord  Jehovah.    15.  Then,  when  I  have  made  the  land  of  Egypt  a 

1  By  a  very  slight  emendation,  Ewald  renders  this  clause,  "  thou  tossedst  up  (spray) 
through  thy  nostrils,"  See  Job  xli.  20,  But  does  the  crocodile  cast  spray  out  of  its 
nostrils  ?  Yet,  in  a  poetical  way,  the  figure  may  refer  to  the  water  dashed  up  before 
him  in  his  onward  rush. 

2  Literally,  ''  didst  tread." 

3  Same  word  as  "  streams." 

4  The  two  words  for  "net"  are  different,  but  their  distinctive  features  are  not 
known.    The  last  word  comes  from  a  root  "  to  enclose."    Ezek.  xxxii.  3-15. 

s  The  Aphikim,  literally,  "swift  rushes  of  water."  In  Egypt  they  could  only 
refer  to  the  canals.  «  Canals,  etc. 

">  The  Nile  fertilizes  Egypt  by  its  black  mud,  whence  the  Nile  valley  is  called 
"  The  black,"    Ezekiel  poetically  sees  it  become  a  clear  flowing  stream. 


THE   JEWISH   COLONIES   IN   EGYPT.  191 

desolation,  and  it  is  stripped  of  its  abundance,  when  I  have  smitten  all 
that  dwell  in  it,  they  will  know  that  I  am  Jehovah. 

•'  16.  This  is  the  lamentation  that  they  will  raise;  *  the  daughters  of 
the  nations  shall  chant  it ;  they  will  sing  this  dirge  for  Egypt,  and  for 
all  her  multitude,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah." 

A  fortnight  later '  Ezekiel  returned,  to  a  subject  so  en- 
grossing. He  sees  the  teeming  j^opulation  of  the  Nile 
valley  overwhelmed  by  Nebuchadnezzar.  The  conquest 
of  any  power  or  kingdom  in  those  days  was  its  virtual 
extinction  ;  like  its  sons  slain  in  battle,  the  State  itself 
might  be  said  to  have  gone  down  to  the  grave.  Egypt, 
therefore,  crushed  by  the  Chaldaean,  is  seen  in  Sheol ;  a 
companion,  now,  of  the  shades  of  mighty  empires  that  had 
passed  away  before  her.  Their  presence  is  her  only  miser- 
able consolation. 

•' XXXII,  17.  The  word  of  Jehovah  (says  the  prophet)  came  to 
me  thus:  18.  Son  of  man !  lift  up  a  wailing  for  the  multitude  of  Egypt, 
and  cast  her  down  like  the  daughters  ^  of  (other)  famous  nations  (be- 
fore her),  into  the  underworld,  to  them  that  have  already  descended  to 
Sheol!  19.  Art  thou  any  fairer  than  others?  Get  thee  down,  and  lie 
(dishonoured)  among  the  uncircumcised.*  20.  The  Egyptians  shall 
fall  among  those  slain  by  the  sword !  It  is  already  given  (to  him  who 
shall  use  it) !  Draw  down  Egypt  and  all  her  multitudes  (to  the  shades 
of  the  pit,  ye  powers  of  the  underworld)!  31.  The  mighty  heroes 
(already  in  Sheol)  say,  from  its  depths,  of  Pharaoh  and  his  allies, 
(now  with  themselves) :  '  They  have  come  down  hither,  there  they  lie, 
the  uncircumcised,  slain  with  the  sword.'"  * 

The  great  kingdoms  of  the  past,  visited  for  their  sins, 
like  Pharaoh  himself,  are  already  in  the  underworld,  and 

1  Ezek.  xxxii.  16-21. 

a  On  the  15th,  doubtless  of  the  twelfth  month,  though  the  copyist  has  omitted  to 
give  the  number. 

^  Population. 

4  "  Uncircumcised  "  was  the  lowest  word  of  contempt  in  the  mouth  of  a  Jew. 

*  And  hence  without  honourable  burial.  "Uncircumcised  "  is  used  as  equivalent 
to  "vile,"  "  degraded,"  "  uucleun,"  because  not  purified  by  funeral  rites. 


193  THE  JEWISH    COLOKIES   IX   EGYPT, 

greet  him  when  he  enters  it,   to   lie  down  in  the  grave 
among  them,  with  all  his  host. 

"22.  Asshur  is  there  (in  Sheol),*  with  all  its  host;  its  king,  sur- 
rounded by  the  graves  of  his  people,  all  of  them  slain,  pierced  by 
the  sword.  23.  Their  graves  are  made  in  the  depths  of  Sheol,  those 
of  his  host  round  that  of  the  Great  King;  all  slain,  pierced  by  the 
sword  that  caused  terror  in  the  land  of  the  living. 

"24.  Elam  is  there  and  her  whole  multitude,  round  the  grave  of  its 
king;  all  slain,  pierced  by  the  sword,  gone  down,  uncircumcised,  to 
the  underworld;  they  who  spread  terror  in  the  land  of  the  living,  now 
bear  the  shame  (of  death)  with  those  already  lying  in  the  grave.  25, 
They  set  Elam  a  bier  in  the  midst  of  the  graves  of  her  hosts,  all  of 
them  round  about  her,  all  of  them  uncircumcised,  slain  in  battle ;  for 
though  they  spread  terror  in  the  land  of  the  living,  they  now  lie 
humbled  among  those  already  in  the  grave.  Elam  is  laid  in  the  midst 
of  the  slain ! 

"26.  Meshech  and  Tubal,  with  all  their  multitude,  are  there;  their 
graves  round  about  that  of  their  chief;  all  of  them  uncircumcised,  slain 
in  battle — they  who  spread  terror  in  the  land  of  the  living!  27.  They 
lie  not  with  the  heroes  of  the  uncircumcised,  gone  down  to  Sheol  with 
tlieir  weapons  of  war,  their  swords  laid  under  their  heads,^  but  their 
iniquities  have  come  on  their  very  bones,  because  they  were  a  terror  to 
the  mighty,  in  the  land  of  the  living. 

"28.  Thou,  also  (0  Egypt),  shalt  lie  shattered  among  the  uncir- 
cumcised, with  them  that  are  slain  by  the  sword! 

"29.  Edom  lies  there,  her  kings,  and  all  her  princes,  mighty  as 
they  were,  laid  among  them,  slain  by  the  sword,  with  the  uncircum- 
cised and  those  gone  down  to  the  pit! 

"30.  There  lie  the  princes  of  the  North — all  of  them,  and  all  the 
Sidonians,  gone  down  to  the  shades  of  the  slain;  (terror-inspiring 
once,)  brought  to  shame  now!  They  lie,  uncircumcised,  among  those 
slain  with  the  sword,  bearing  a  common  shame  with  the  rest  of  the 
dead! 

"31.  All  these  will  Pharaoh  see  (when  he  goes  down,  like  them,  to 
Sheol),  and  take  comfort  to  himself  (at  the  sight  of  them),  for  the 
slaughter  of  all  his  host,  (now  gathered  around  him,  there  once  more, 

'  Ezek.  xxxii.  22-31. 

2  Burial  of  the  weapons  of  war  with  the  dead  was  common  in  antiquity,  as  it  Is 
now  in  some  uncivilized  countries.  Virgil,  ^ft.,  6,  233.  Arrian,  i.  5.  Diod.  Sic, 
xviii.  26. 


THE   JEWISH    COLONIES   IN    EGYPT.  193 

as  pale  gliO!?l.s),  for  Pharaoh  and  all  liis  army  will  ])c  slain  in  bailie, 
says  the  Lord  Jehovah.  32.  1  put  the  terror  (of  him) '  into  the  hearts 
of  men  in  the  land  of  the  living,  but,  (for  all  that)  he  will  be  stretched 
out  among  the  uncircumcised,  with  them  that  are  slain  by  the  sword; 
Pharaoh  and  all  his  host,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah." 

Thus  sang  the  prophet  in  the  year  B.C.  584,  nineteen 
months  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem.  The  years  that  fol- 
lowed saw  the  Chaldaean  forces  straining  every  nerve  to 
conquer  insular  Tyre.  Nebuchadnezzar  triumphed  after 
his  thirteen  years^  siege  ;  but,  as  we  have  seen,  the  city, 
though  taken,  was  spared.  The  cnp  of  its  iniquity  was  not 
yet  full,  and  its  utter  overthrow  was  delayed  to  a  later  age. 
But  the  fate  of  Egypt  was  sealed  by  the  submission  of  the 
great  Phoenician  city.^  Now  tributary  to  the  G-reat  King, 
and  no  longer  a  source  of  danger  in  his  rear,  he  was  free 
to  march  to  the  Nile.  Thither,  therefore,  his  victorious 
legions  advanced,  in  the  fighting  season  of  the  year  B.C. 
572  or  571,  immediately  after  the  siege  of  Tyre  was  ended. 
Fourteen  or  fifteen  years  had  passed  since  Ezekiel's  former 
predictions,  that  Pharaoh  would  be  defeated,  but  though 
his  dirge  and  that  of  his  host  had  been  sung  on  the  Chebar 
BO  long  before,  the  prophet's  faith  in  the  ultimate  result 
had  never  been  shaken.  When  Tyre  at  last  fell,  he 
retnrned  to  the  subject.  On  the  first  day  of  the  seven  and 
twentieth  year  of  Jehoiacliin's  captivity,  and  of  his  own, 
the  year  B.C.  571,  the  word  of  Jehovah,  he  tells  us,  came 
to  him,  saying  : 

"XXIX.  18.  Son  of  man,  ^  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon,  has 
made  his  army  go  through  hard  service  against  Tyre  ;  every  head  is 
bald,  and  every  shoulder  rubbed  bare,  (with  pushing  the  war  machines 
and  such  like  toil),  and  neither  he  nor  his  host  has  had  any  return 
from  the  city,  for  their  toil  in  besieging  it.     19.  Therefore,  thus  says 

'  Ezek.  xxxii.  32.  ^  See  p.  180.  ^  Ezek.  xxix.  18,  19. 


194  THE   JEWISH   COLONIES   IN    EGYPT. 

the  Lord  Jehovah  :  Behold,  I  give  over  the  land  of  Egypt  to  hira  (as 
a  recompense),  and  he  will  carry  off  its  wealth  and  seize  its  spoils  and 
plunder  its  booty,  and  this  will  be  the  reward  of  his  array.  20.  I 
have  given  him  the  land  of  Egypt  for  his  service  against  Tyre,^  because 
his  host  were  working  for  Me,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah.  21.  In  that 
day  I  will  make  a  horn  shoot  forth  to  the  house  of  Israel,  and  I  will 
open  thy  mouth  in  their  raidst,^  and  they  will  know  that  I  am  Jehovah." 

Egypt  had  filled  a  great  place  in  the  foreign  rehitions  of 
the  whole  reign  of  Nebuchadnezzar.  Just  before  his  acces- 
sion, while  crown  prince,  he  had  fought  the  great  battle  of 
Carchemish,  which  expelled  Pharaoh  Necho  from  Western 
Asia.  In  587,  he  had  been  disturbed  during  the  siege  of 
Jerusalem,  by  the  attempt  of  Pharaoh  Ilophra  to  relieve 
that  city  ;  and  during  the  siege  of  Tyre,  Egypt  had  appar- 
ently aided  the  Phoenicians.  A  burning  thirst  for  revenge 
was  thus  kept  alive  in  the  bosom  of  the  Great  King,  and 
this  fact  was  doubtless  known  widely.  Alike  on  the  Nile 
and  on  the  Cliebar,  the  threats  of  the  Babylonian  conqueror 
must  have  been  constantly  discussed  in  the  colonies  of 
Hebrew  exiles,  so  long  zealous  partisans  or  opponents  of 
Egypt.  It  Avas  natural,  therefore,  that  the  prophet- 
preachers  of  the  day  should  often  recur  to  the  subject. 
Hence,  perhaps  the  latest  utterance  of  Ezekiel  which  we 
possess,  reverts  to  it  once  more.  In  the  thirtieth  chapter  of 
his  Book,  he  tells  us  that  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  again 
to  him,  apparently  soon  after  the  prediction  last  quoted, 
foretelling  the  excitement  that  would  be  felt,  even  in  Ethi- 
opia, on  the  news  of  the  downfall  of  Egypt  and  its  allies. 

"XXX.  2.  Son  of  man  (said  the  Divine  Voice),  prophesy  and  say, 
Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah  :  Wail  aloud  !  '  Alas  for  this  evil  day  ! ' 

^  Ezek.  xxix.  20,  21;  xxx.  2. 

2  A  time  will  follow,  in  which  the  prophet,  justified  by  the  fulfilment  of  his  pre^ 
diction,  will  be  able  to  speak  more  freely  than  in  the  hostile  past. 


THE   JEWISH   COLONIES   I^S"    EGYPT.  195 

3.  For  the  day  is  near,'  the  day  of  Jehovah,  a  day  of  dark  clouds  !  the 
time  (of  the  Judgment)  of  the  heathen  !  4.  The  sword  will  come  on 
Egypt,  and  trembling  on  Ethiopia,  when  the  slain  fall  in  Egypt,  and 
(the  enemy)  carries  off  its  wealth,  and  its  very  foundations  are 
destroyed.  5.  (The  coutingent  of)  Ethiopians,  the  men  of  Phut,  the 
men  of  Lud,"^  and  all  the  mixed  tribes  of  desert  allies,  the  Libyans ' 
(fighting  in  their  ranks),  and  all  the  vassal  peoples  *  shall  fall  by  the 
sword." 

All  the  allies  of  Egypt  will  be  destroyed,  and  the  country 
laid  desolate. 

"  6.  Thus  says  Jehovah:  All  the  supports  of  Egypt  will  fall,^  and  its 
proud  might  will  sink.  From  Migdol  (on  the  borders  of  Palestine),  to 
Syene  ®  (far  south,  on  the  cataracts  of  the  Nile),  they  shall  fall  by  the 
sword,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah.  7.  Egypt  will  be  desolate  in  the  midst 
of  desolate  lands,  and  her  cities  waste  in  the  midst  of  waste  cities. 
8.  And  they  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah,  when  I  kindle  a  con- 
flagration in  Egypt,  and  all  her  allies  ^  are  destroyed.  9.  On  that  day, 
messengers  sent  off  by  Me,  will  start  in  swift  Nile  boats,  to  alarm  the 
Ethiopians  dwelling  in  fancied  security,  and  terror  will  seize  them 
when  the  day  of  Egypt  arrives,  for,  lo,  it  comes !  " 

Nebuchadnezzar  has  been  chosen  by  God  to  carry  out 
the  Divine  purposes,  and  the  ruin  he  will  inflict  will  be 
terrible. 

' '  10.  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah  :  I  will  make  an  end  of  the  hum  of 
men  in  Egj'pt,  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  king  of  Babylon.     11.  He  and 

1  Ezek.  XXX.  3-11. 

2  Phut  was  the  Egyptian  Pant,  on  the  Somali  coast.  There  were  two  Luds  ;  one 
LydiainAsia  Minor;  the  other,  some  African  district,  near  Egypt,  now  unknown. 
It  is  this  Liid  to  which  Ezekiel  refers. 

'  Ewald  has  "  Nubians."  *  Literally,  "  sons  of  the  covenant." 

'  The  idols,  princes,  strong  cities,  and  warriors.    See  verses  13,  15,  17. 

«  Syene  is  the  Assouan  of  to-day.  It  was  famous  in  antiquity  for  its  granite 
quarries,  in  the  wild  red  hills  behind  it.  I  visited  them,  and  saw  an  obelisk  of  huge 
lenc^th  and  corresponding  bulk,  lying  ready  for  being  removed  from  the  hillside  from 
which  it  had  been  cut  out,  who  knows  how  many  ages  ago  ?  Vast  numbers  of  tombs, 
many  very  ancient,  are  found  in  the  rocks  all  round  Assouan,  which  is  now  a  poor 
town  with  a  wretched  bazaar.  It  was  strange  to  see  red-coated  English  soldiers 
stationed  at  this  frontier  town  of  ancient  Egypt. 

'  Literally,  '•helpers." 


190  THE   JEWISH   COLONIES   li^    EGYPT. 

his  people  with  him — the  fiercest  of  the  nations — will  be  brought  to 
destroy  this  land  ;  they  will  draw  their  swords  against  Egypt,  and  fill 
the  land  with  the  slain.  12.  And  I  will  dry  up  the  Nile  canals,  and 
give  the  land  into  the  hand  of  a  rapacious  soldiery,^  and  lay  it  and  all 
that  is  in  it  waste,  by  the  hand  of  barbarians  ;  I,  Jehovah,  have 
spoken  ! " 

A  fuller  reliearsal  of  the  sorrows  that   will   befall  the 
doomed  land  follows. 

"  13.  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah  :  I  will  destroy  the  blocks  (of  wood 
they  call  gods),  and  root  out  the  worthless  idols  from  Mem  phis,  ^  and 


Syene  (Assouan)  uurino  the  Overflow  of  the  Nile. 

there  will  be  no  more  a  prince  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  I  will  spread 
fear  throughout  its  borders.  14.  And  I  will  make  Pathros  (that  is, 
Upper  Egypt)  desolate,  and  will  kindle  a  confiagration  in  Zoan-Tanis 
(in  Lower  Egypt),  and  will  execute  My  judgments  in  No-(Amon — or 
Thebes,  the  capital  of  Upper  Egypt).  15.  And  I  will  pour  My  fury  on 
(Pelusium  or)  Sin,  (the  frontier  fortress  of  the  land,  on  its  north-east 
border),  and,  thus,  its  strength  and  I  will  cut  off  the  multitude  of 
Thebes.  16.  And  I  will  kindle  a  confiagration  in  Egypt  ;  Pelusiimi 
will  tremble  greatly,  and  Thebes  be  captured,  and  Memphis  stormed 
in  the  daytime.  17.  The  young  men  of  On  s  (or  Bethaven,  the  liead- 
quarters  of  idolatry)  and  of  Bubastis,^  will  fall  by  the  sword,  and  the 

1  This  is  tlie  meaning  of  "  selling  "  it  to  "  the  wicked."    Ezek.  xxx.  12-17. 

2  The  special  seat  of  the  worship  of  Ptah  and  Apis. 

3  Heiiopolis,  Bethaven,  "'House  of  Nothingness."  Aven  and  On,  in  Hebrew,  have 
the  same  consonants  ;  a  change  of  vowels  only  making  the  diflEerence. 

•»  Pi  Beseth,  specially  given  to  the  worship  of  cats.  Consignments  of  the  mummies 
of  these  creatures  have  latterly  been  imported  to  Liverpool,  to  grind  into  manure. 
One  of  these,  lately,  consisted  of  nearly  twenty  tons  of  cats,  numbering  about  180,000 


THE   JEWISH    COLONIES   IN    EGYPT.  191' 

population  of  both  cities  will  be  led  off  into  captivity.  18.  At  Tahpanhes 
(that  is,  Daphne,  near  Pelusium)/  the  day  will  be  darkened,  when  I 
break  the  supports  of  Egypt  there,  and  make  an  end  of  her  haughty 
pride  ;  a  cloud  will  cover  her,  and  (the  towns),  her  daughters,  will  be 
led  off  into  captivity.  19.  Thus  will  I  execute  judgments  in  Egypt, 
and  they  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah." 

The  fiilfilment  of  these  successive  prophecies  was  strik- 
ingly complete.  Nebuchadnezzar  seems  to  have  been  com- 
pelled to  turn  his  arms  for  a  time  in  some  other  direction, 
after  the  fall  of  insular  Tyre,  before  marching  against 
Egypt.  According  to  Greek  writers,  Piiaraoh  Hophra 
used  this  interval  to  fit  out  a  great  fleet,  built  on  the  then 
famous  Greek  model,  and  manned  by  lonians  and  Carians, 
and  sent  them  to  Phoenician  waters,  to  stir  uj),  if  possible, 
a  rising  against  the  Chalda3ans,  so  as  to  keeji  them  from 
the  Nile  valley.  Weak  on  the  land,  Hophra  seemed  more 
likely  to  be  successful  by  sea.  as  the  Chaldaeans  were 
indebted,  in  naval  matters,  chiefly  to  allies.  His  only 
measure  of  defence  in  his  own  territories  was  to  fortify  and 
strongly  garrison  the  frontier  town  Pelusium,^  trusting  to 
its  detaining  the  Great  King  by  the  slowness  of  a  siege, 
while  the  Egy2:)tian  navy  was  busy  in  his  rear.  But  the 
Phoenician  cities,  demoralized  by  recent  defeat,  were  not 
disposed  to  embroil  themselves  again  with  Nebuchadnezzar. 
He  had  razed  continental  Tyre  to  the  ground,  and  might 
do  the  same  with  other  towns,  if  they  rose  against  him. 
Their  fleets,  therefore,  instead  of  joining  that  of  Egypt, 
sailed  over  to  the  neighbouring  Cyprus,  and  united  with 
the  navies  of  the  petty  kings  of  that  island.  Following  the 
enemy  thither,  however,  Hophra's  ships  won  a  great  victory 

—taken  from  a  cemetery  of  the  creature  iu  which  millions,  it  would  seem,  lie  wrapped 
each  in  cloth,  and  carefully  embalmed.     The  price  paid  per  ton  for  them,  iu  Alex 
andria,  was  £3  IS*'.  9t/.,  about  SI ".50. 
>  Ezek.  XXX.  18,  19.  '  Ezek.  xxx.  15. 


198  THE   JEWISH    COLONIES   IK    EGYPT. 

over  the  combined  fleets,  and  then  sailing  back  to  the 
Phoenician  coast,  took  the  city  of  Sidon  by  storm,  and  gave 
it  up  to  plunder.  On  this,  the  other  coast  towns  hastened 
to  submit  to  Hophra,  and  recognized  him  as  their  over- 
lord ;  a  dignity  he  retained  for  three  years.  In  striking 
corroboration  of  this,  remains  of  Egyptian  structures, 
bearing  the  Pharaoh's  name  as  their  builder,  are  still 
found  at  the  coast  towns  of  Gebal,  the  ancient  Byblos,  and 
Arvad,  the  ancient  Arados. 

Elated  by  such  prosperity,  Hophra  fancied  himself  ^'  the 
happiest  king  that  ever  lived,"'  and  insanely  vaunted  that 
even  "  the  gods  could  not  overtlirow  him.''  But  the  dissi- 
pation of  his  dreams  was  terrible  !  Hearing  of  his  suc- 
cesses, the  Libyan  shore  tribes,  harassed  by  Greek  colonists 
on  their  soil,  appealed  to  him  as  their  natural  protector, 
and  in  his  vanity  he  undertook  their  deliverance.  As  he 
could  not,  however,  trust  his  Greek  mercenaries  against 
their  own  countrymen,  he  sent  native  soldiers  on  the  ex- 
pedition, which  proved  an  utter  failure.  The  Egyptians 
were  so  disastrously  defeated,  that  very  few  of  them  re- 
turned to  Egypt.  Mourning  tilled  the  land,  and  indigna- 
tion against  Hophra  became  loud  and  threatening.  The 
priests  and  native  soldiery,  who,  alike,  hated  him  for  his 
partiality  to  Greek  mercenaries,  whispered  that  ''  he  had 
sent  the  Egyptian  army  to  Libya  to  get  rid  of  it."  The 
sight  of  the  straggling  and  wretched  survivors  at  last 
roused  a  wide  and  fierce  revolt,  which  lie  sought  to  quell 
by  ordering  his  chief  general  Ahmes  against  the  rebels. 
The  troops,  however,  no  sooner  saw  him,  than  they  elected 
him  king,  and  forced  him  to  march  against  the  Pharaoh. 
Opposing  him  at  the  head  of  thirty  thousand  mercenaries, 
Hophra  might  reasonably  have  expected  victory  ;  but  the 


THE   JEWISH   COLONIES   IN"   EGYPT.  199 

enthusiasm  of  the  foe  was  irresistible,  and  the  royal  army 
was  routed,  the  king  himself  being  taken  prisoner,  and 
shut  up  in  his  palace  at  Sais,  by  the  conqueror.  This, 
however,  would  not  satisfy  the  populace.  Clamouring  to 
have  the  unfortunate  monarch  given  up  to  them,  they  at 
last  gained  their  point,  and  at  once  strangled  him. 

The  account  given  by  Josephus  is  different.  According 
to  his  authorities,  Nebuchadnezzar  invaded  Egypt,  and 
having  dethroned  Hophra,  set  up  Ahmes,  better  known  as 
Amasis,  in  his  place,  and  this  is  substantially  corroborated 
by  various  Egyptian  and  Babylonian  inscriptions.  The 
governor  of  a  province  of  Southern  Egypt,  in  those  years, 
living  at  Elephantina  almost  as  a  petty  king,  had  erected, 
among  other  memorials  of  himself,  a  statue,  recently  dis- 
covered,' on  which  is  the  following  inscription  ;^ 

'^  His  Majesty  (Hophra)  invested  me  with  a  very  high 
dignity,  that  of  his  eldest  son,  making  me  governor  of  the 
regions  of  the  south,  to  drive  back  invaders.^'  The  mag- 
nificent gifts  this  fortunate  personage  had  made  to  the  gods 
and  the  priests  of  his  province,  and  the  temples  he  had 
built,  are  then  recounted,  and  he  proceeds  :  ^'  1  set  up 
my  statue  that  my  name  might  endure  for  ever,  by  its 
means,  for  I  protected  the  temple  of  the  gods  when  it 
suffered  from  the  foreign  soldiery  of  the  Amu,^  the  people 
of  the  north  and  those  of  Asia — the  wretches  who  had  evil 
in  their  hearts,  for  they  purposed  to  overrun  and  ravage 
Upper  Egypt.  They  carried  out  the  plans  their  hearts  had 
conceived.^"*  He  adds,  that  he  kept  the  invaders  from 
getting  beyond  the  first  cataract,  at  Syene,  or  Assouan,  and 
drove  them  back  on  Hophra's  army,  by  which,  he  affirms, 

1  Now  in  the  Louvre.  2  j  have  somewhat  condeused  the  language. 

3  Any  yell(»w-?kinned  or  Semitic  people. 

*  Vigouroux,  vol.  iv.  p.  374.     Becords  of  the  Past,  vol.  vi.  p.  81. 


200  THE    JEWISH    COLOlNrTES    T^N"    EGYPT. 

tliey  were  defeated,  thoiigli  this  was  doubtless  a  diplomatic 
flattery  to  Egyptian  feeling.  The  facts  seem  to  be,  that 
the  native  soldiery  actually  revolted,  and  that  Nebuchad- 
nezzar was  thus  enabled  to  overthrow  Ilophra  more  easily. 
Yet  his  army,  as  we  see  from  this  inscription,  marched  as 
far  south  as  the  first  cataract,  thus  literally  fulfilling  the 
prediction  of  Ezekiel,*  that  he  would  waste  the  land  in  its 
whole  length  from  Migdol  to  Syene.  But  the  Great  King, 
not  wishing  to  make  Egypt  a  mere  Babylonian  province, 
sanctioned  the  succession  of  Ahmes  to  the  throne  as  his 
vassal  under  the  name  of  Amasis,  the  murderer  of  Hophra, 
whose  miserable  end  had  been  foretold  by  Jeremiali.^ 

The  new  Pharaoh  was  not  satisfied,  however,  with  his 
position,  and  speedily  strove  to  make  himself  independent. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  fine  navy  left  by  Hophra,  he 
sailed  against  Cyprus,  and  conquered  it ;  an  act  resented 
by  Nebuchadnezzar  as  rebellion  and  a  declaration  of  war. 
The  Babylonian  army  was  once  more,  therefore,  directed 
against  Egypt,  and  invaded  it  in  B.C.  568,  the  thirty- 
seventh  year  of  the  Great  King — three  years  a'fter  the 
former  campaign  on  the  Nile.  The  contest  that  followed 
was  bitter  in  the  extreme,  most  of  the  Delta  being  laid 
waste,  with  all  its  cities.  At  last,  however,  Amasis  was 
conquered,  and,  though  left  on  the  throne,  was  again  forced 
to  become  a  tributary  of  Babylon.  A  clay  tablet  in  the 
British  Museum  fortunately  preserves  a  notice  of  this  sec- 
ond Egyptian  campaign  ;  a  fact  specially  interesting,  since 
it  is  the  only  inscription  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  referring  to 
his  wars,  which  has  come  down  to  us.  It  runs  thus  :  ^'  In 
the  thirty-seventh  year  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  the 
country  of  Babylon,  he  went  to  Egypt  (Misr),  to  make  war. 

1  Ezek.  XXX.  6.  «  Jer.  xliv.  30. 


THE  JEWISH   COLONIES   IN   EGYPT.  201 

Amasis,  king  of  Egypt,  collected  (his  arnij-)  and  his  sol- 
diers marched  and  spread  abroad."  Then  follow  frag- 
mentary lines,  describing,  apparently,  his  forces  of  horse, 
chariots,  and  infantry,  but  the  tablet  is,  unfortunately,  so 
imperfect  that  the  issue  of  the  campaign  is  lost.'  Muti- 
lated as  it  is,  however,  the  notice  is  of  extreme  interest, 
since  it  shews  the  minute  accuracy  of  the  prophecies  of 
Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  which  have  been  treated  as  unhis- 
torical,  it  being  assumed  that  Nebuchadnezzar  never  in- 
vaded Egypt. 

But  the  spade  of  the  scientific  excavator  has  recently 
disclosed  a  still  more  striking  corroboration  of  the  his- 
torical details  given  by  Jeremiah.  Working  upon  a  large 
mound,  or  group  of  mounds,  called  Tell  Defenneh,  long 
known  to  be  the  ^^  Pelusiac  Daphnas "  of  tlie  Greeks,  and 
the  "  Tahpanhes  "  of  the  Bible,  in  the  dreariest  corner  of 
the  north-east  Delta  of  the  ^  ile,  Flinders  Petrie  came  upon 
the  ruins  of  a  great  building,  which  has  been  identified, 
beyond  doubt,  as  the  palace  mentioned  by  the  prophet, 
to  whose  neighbourhood,  Jolianan,  followed  by  all  *^the 
captains  of  the  forces,"  and  ''  the  remnant  of  Judah," 
brought  the  fugitive  daughters  of  Zedekiah,  then  a 
dethroned  and  mutilated  captive  in  Babylon.  The  flight 
of  the  princesses  took  place  about  B.C.  585,  during  the 
reign  of  Ua-ab-Ka,  of  the  26tli  Egyptian  dynast}',  whom  the 
Hebrews  called  Hophra,  and  the  Greeks  Apries.  The 
Pharaoh  received  them  with  hospitality.  To  the  mass  of 
Jewish  immigrants  he  granted  tracts  of  land  extending 
from  Tahpanhes  to  Bubastis,  while  to  the  daughters  of 
Zedekiah,  his  former  ally,  he  assigned  his  royal  residence, 
which  the  Bible   calls  ''  Pharaoh's  house  in  Tahpanhes." 

*  Tratis.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  vol.  vii.  pp.  210-~';J5.    Vigpuroux,  vol.  iv.  p.  376. 


202  THE   JEWISH   COLO:^riES   IN   EGYPT. 

Plere,  no  doubt^  the  fugitives  gladly  rested,  and  would 
have  been  happy,  in  the  thought  that  they  were  safe,  had 
Jeremiah,  who  was  among  them,  not  disturbed  this  pleas- 
ant dream,  by  telling  them  that  Nebuchadnezzar  would, 
assuredly,  come  and  destroy  the  whole  place.  And  this,  as 
we  have  seen,  he  did.  According  to  Josephus,  '^  He  fell 
upon  Egypt  and  took  the  Jews  that  were  captive  there, 
and  carried  them  off  to  Babylon,  and  such  was  the  end  of 
the  nation  of  the  Hebrews.^'  It  was  long  believed,  how- 
ever, that  this  statement  was  an  error,  and  that  Nebuchad- 
nezzar had  never  been  in  Egypt  at  all,  but  an  inscription, 
as  we  have  seen,  now  shews  that  he  did  actually  invade  it, 
while  another  states  that  he  penetrated  to  the  south,  till 
he  reached  the  far-distant  Assouan.  But  now,  finally, 
Mr.  Petrie  not  only  discovered  the  very  palace  assigned  to 
the  daughters  of  Zedekiah,  but  found  that,  in  accordance 
with  the  prophecy  of  Jeremiah,  it  had  been  plundered,  dis- 
mantled, and  burnt. 

Arriving  at  his  destination  in  the  desert  towards  even- 
ing, footsore  and  weary,  he  saw  a  huge  mound  of  blackened 
brickwork  standing  higli  against  a  lurid  sky,  and  reddened 
by  a  fiery  sunset.  His  Arabs  hastened  to  tell  him  its  local 
name ;  and  he  may  be  envied  the  delightful  surprise  with 
which  he  learned  that  it  is  known  far  and  near  as  '^  El 
Kasr  el  Bint  el  Yahudi — the  Castle  of  the  Jew's  Daughter. "" 
Losing  no  time  in  beginning  his  explorations,  he  found  the 
ruin  had  been  a  stronghold,  quadrangular,  lofty,  and  mass- 
ive— very  like  the  keep  of  Eochester  Castle.  Round  it 
were  the  remains  of  a  city  so  extensive,  as  to  shew  that 
Tahpanhes  must  have  been  a  large  place.  The  palace  con- 
sisted of  sixteen  square  chambers  on  each  floor,  both  the 
outer  walls,  and  the  inside  partitions,  being  of  enormous 


THE   JEWISH    COLONIES   IN   EGYPT.  203 

strength,  but  it  was  impossible  to  tell  how  many  stories 
there  had  been,  originally.  Under  the  four  corners  of  the 
chief  part  of  the  structure,  were  plates  of  metal  and  stone, 
put  in  when  the  foundations  were  laid,  each  bearing  the 
cartouche  of  Psammetichus  I.,  the  founder  of  the  dynasty, 
about  seventy  years  before  the  arrival  of  the  Hebrew  fugi- 
tives. Under  the  south-east  corner,  moreover,  were  found 
the  teeth  and  bones  of  an  ox,  sacrificed  at  the  foundation 
ceremony,  while  libation  vessels,  grain  pestles,  specimens  of 
ores,  model  bricks,  the  bones  of  a  small  bird,  and  a  series  of 
little  tablets  in  gold,  silver,  lapis-lazuli,  jasper,  cornelian, 
and  porcelain,  engraved  with  the  royal  name  and  titles, 
were  also  found  among  the  foundation  deposits.  Some  of 
the  basement  chambers  were  found  uninjured,  below  the 
mounds  of  rubbish,  and  among  these  a  kitchen,  a  butler's 
pantry,  and  a  scullery.  The  kitchen  is  a  large  room,  Avith 
recesses  in  the  thickness  of  the  walls,  which  served  for 
dressers.  Here  some  fourteen  large  jars  and  two  large  flat 
dishes  were  standing  in  their  places,  unharmed  amid  the 
general  destruction.  A  pair  of  stone  grain  pestles,  a  large 
iron  knife,  various  weights,  and  three  small  flat  iron 
pokers — or  possibly  spits — were  also  found  in  this  room. 
The  butler's  pantry,  it  need  scarcely  be  said,  was  the  room 
to  which  wine  jars  were  brought  from  the  cellars  to  be 
opened.  It  contained  no  amphorae,  but  hundreds  of  jar 
lids  and  plaster  amphorae  stoppers,  some  stamped  with  the 
royal  ovals  of  Psammetichus,  and  some  with  those  of 
Necho,  his  successor.  Here  also  was  found  a  pot  of  resin. 
The  empty  amphorai,  with  quantities  of  other  pottery, 
mostly  broken,  were  piled  in  a  kind  of  rubbish  depot 
close  by. 
In  other  chambers  there  have  been  found  large  quanti- 


204  THE   JEWISH   COLOKIES   Iiq"   EGYPT. 

ties  of  early  Greek  vases  ranging  from  B.C.  550  to  B.C.  600, 
some  finely  painted  with  scenes  of  battles  of  the  giants, 
chimeras,  harpies,  sphinxes,  processions  of  damsels, 
dancers,  chariot  races,  and  the  like,  nearly  all  broken, 
but  many  quite  mendable  ;  also  several  big  amphorae  with 
large  loop  handles,  quite  perfect.  A  sword-handle  with  a 
wide,  curved  guard ;  some  scale-armour,  bronze  rings, 
amulets,  beads,  seals,  small  brass  vessels,  and  other  minor 
objects  of  interest  have  also  turned  up,  and  two  rings 
engraved  with  the  titles  of  a  priest  of  Amon.  Among  these 
relics,  some  small  tablets  inscribed  with  the  name  of 
Amasis  (Ahmes  II.)  and  a  large  bronze  seal  of  Apries 
(Hophra)  are  important,  inasmuch  as  they  complete  the 
name-links  in  the  historic  chain  of  the  twenty-sixth 
dynasty.  Apries  brings  us  to  B.C.  591-570,  and  to  the 
time  of  the  flight  of  the  daughters  of  Zedekiah. 

But  the  most  interesting  part  of  the  discoveries  was  that 
of  the  very  brickwork,  or  pavement,  mentioned  by  Jere- 
miah.* ''Then  came  the  word  of  the  Lord  unto  Jeremiah, 
in  Tahpanhes,  saying.  Take  great  stones  in  thine  hand, 
and  hide  them  in  mortar,  in  the  brickwork  which  is  at  the 
entry  of  Pharaoh^s  house,  in  Tahpanhes,  in  the  sight  of 
the  men  of  Judah  ;  and  say  unto  them.  Thus  saith  the  Lord 
of  Hosts,  the  God  of  Israel  :  Behold,  I  will  send  and  take 
Nebuchadnezzar,  the  king  of  Babylon,  my  servant,  and  will 
set  his  throne  upon  these  stones  that  I  have  hid ;  and  he 
shall  spread  his  royal  pavilion  over  them,  etc.'"'  "^'As  soon  as 
the  plan  of  the  palace  began  to  be  recovered,^'  says  Mr. 
Petrie,  ''  the  exactness  of  this  description  was  manifest. 
On  the  north-west  side  was  a  great  open-air  platform  of 
brickwork,  such  as  is  now  seen  outside  all  great  houses, 

1  Jer.  xliii.  8. 


THE   JKWISII    COLONIES   IN    EdYPT.  205 

and  most  small  one?,  in  Egypt.  A  space  is  reserved  out- 
side the  door,  generally  along  the  side  of  the  house,  cov- 
ered with  hard-beaten  mud,  edged  with  a  border  of  bricks 
not  much  raised  above  the  ground,  and  constantly  kept 
clean.  On  this  platform  the  inhabitants  sit,  when  they 
wish  to  converse  Avith  their  neighbours,  or  the  passers  by. 
A  great  man  will  settle  himself  to  receive  his  friends,  and 
drink  coffee,  and  public  business  is  generally  transacted 
there.  Such  seems  to  have  been  the  object  of  this  large 
platform,  which  offers  an  area  of  continuous  brickwork, 
resting  on  sand,  about  a  hundred  feet  by  sixty,  facing  the 
entrance  to  the  later  buildings,  at  the  east  corner.  It  was 
evidently  a  place  to  meet  persons  who  Avould  not  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  palace  or  fort,  to  assemble  guards,  to  hold 
large  levees,  to  receive  tribute  and  stores,  to  unlade  goods, 
and  to  transact  the  multifarious  business  which,  in  such  a 
climate,  is  best  done  in  the  open  air.  The  actual  way  into 
the  palace  was  along  a  raised  causeway,  at  the  back  of 
this  platform. 

'^  This  brickwork  or  pavement  is,  no  doubt,  that  of 
which  Jeremiah  speaks,  as  stretching  out  at  the  entry  of 
Pharaoh's  house  at  Tahpanhes.  Here,  the  ceremony  de- 
scribed by  the  prophet,  took  place,  before  the  chiefs  of  the 
fugitives,  assembled  on  this  spot,  and  here,  Nebuchad- 
nezzar spread  Miis  royal  pavilion.'  Unhappily,  the  great 
denudation  by  winter  rains,  through  many  centuries,  has 
swept  away  most  of  the  platform,  so  that  we  cannot  expect 
to  find  the  stones  hidden  by  Jeremiah,  but  the  still  re- 
maining memorials  of  the  scene  bear  impressive  witness  to 
the  minute  exactness  of  his  narrative.  Strange  to  say,  in 
corroboration  of  the  actual  presence  of  Kebuchadnezzar 
at  Tahpanhes,  three  cylinders   of   terra-cotta,  the  text  of 


206  THE  JEWISH   COLONIES   IN   EGYPT. 

which  was  an  inscription  of  Nebuchadnezzar's,  about  his 
buildings  in  Babylon,  were  sold,  some  years  ago,  to  the 
Boulak  Museum,  by  a  native,  who  seems  to  have  found 
them  at  this  place,  where  they  were  probably  put  under 
the  now  ruined  part  of  the  platform,  to  commemorate  the 
visit  of  the  Great  King/' 


The  God  Amon,  "The  Hidden  ok  Invisible  One  ;" 
called  also  Nu  or  Num,  after  whom  Thebes  is  called  "  No  Amon  "  by  the  prophet. 


CHAPTER  XL 

ON    THE    CHEBAR. 

The  prophet  Jeremiah  vanishes  from  the  sacred  record 
after  his  last  vain  appeal  to  his  countrymen,  at  their  great 
idol  feast,  to  abandon  idolatry.  When  that  address  was 
delivered,  or  where,  is  not  related  ;  though  the  fact  that 
the  Jews  had  spread  over  both  Lower  and  Upper  Egypt,' 
implies  that  the  festival  must  have  taken  place  years  after 
the  prophet's  unwilling  settlement  on  the  lS"ile,  about  B.C. 
587.  At  that  time  he  seems  to  have  been  already  over 
sixty  years  of  age,'  so  that  at  the  second  campaign  of 
Nebuchadnezzar  in  Egypt,  in  B.C.  568,'  if  he  lived  to  see 
it,  he  would  be  nearly  eighty.  Whether  he  survived  till 
then  is  not  known,  though  his  last  words  of  remonstrance 
to  the  people  he  had  so  long  faithfully  taught,  may  date  at 
least  from  B.C.  573,  the  year  before  the  first  Chaldaean  in- 
vasion of  the  Nile  valley.  If,  however,  the  closing  verses  of 
the  52d  chapter  *  were  written  by  the  prophet  himself,  he 
lived  till  the  reign  of  Evil-Merodach,  son  of  Nebuchadnez- 
zar, which  began  B.C.  562  or  B.C.  561.^  In  this  case  he  must 
have  been  more  than  ninety  at  his  death.  But  it  is  ex- 
tremely doubtful  whether  these  verses  have  not  been  added 

*  Jer.  xliv.  1. 

*  Supposing  him  to  have  been  abont  twenty  on  his  call  to  the  prophetic  office  in 
B.C.  625. 

'  Rfletschi.    The  date  is  uncertain  as  to  the  exact  year.    It  may  have  been  a  year 
or  two  earlier.  *  Jer.  lii.  31-34. 

*  B.C.  562-560,  Birch,    b.c.  560-559,  Schrader.    b.c.  561-560,  Volck. 


208  OK   THE   CHEBAR. 

by  a  later  hand.  How  or  when  he  died  is,  in  fact,  quite 
uncertain.  He  may  have  been  stoned  to  death  by  his 
countrymen  at  Tahpanhes,  as  Christian  tradition  affirms, 
or  he  may  have  gone  to  Babylon  with  the  retiring  army  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  as  the  Rabbis  allege.  Josephus  and  the 
Scriptures  are  alike  silent  as  to  his  later  history  or  death  ; 
but  the  former  tells  us,  that  the  remnant  of  the  Jews  who 
had  fled  to  Egypt  were  carried  off  to  Babylon  by  the  Chal- 
daeans.*  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  silence  as  to  his  last 
days  is  a  veil  drawn  over  them  by  the  Jews,  to  conceal  the 
fact  of  his  martyrdom  ;  for  we  must  not  forget  that  our 
Lord  accuses  the  nation  of  having  habitually  killed  the 
prophets,'  and  we  know  from  Jeremiah's  own  writings  that 
his  life  was  more  than  once  threatened. 

But  if  his  death,  like  that  of  so  many  in  all  ages  who 
have  rebuked  the  sins  of  their  generation,  was  that  of  a 
martyr,  legend  and  tradition  have  united  to  shed  an  ex- 
ceptional glory  round  his  memory.  The  fulfilment  of  his 
prediction,  that  the  exiles  would  return  to  Judaea  after 
seventy  years,  raised  him,  in  the  national  estimation,  to 
the  highest  rank  among  the  prophets.  Though  long  dead, 
it  seemed  as  if  a  spirit  so  tender  must  still  watch  over  the 
interests  of  the  people.  To  think  of  him  as  their  guard- 
ian or  patron  saint  naturally  followed.  It  was  believed 
that,  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  the  lost  taber- 
nacle and  ark,  and  the  treasures  of  the  Temple,  had  been 
hidden  by  him,  in  one  of  the  caves  of  Nebo,  till  the  day 
when  the  nation  is  restored  to  honour  by  the  Messiah.' 
''  The  prophet,"  says  the  tradition,  ''^  being  warned  of  God, 
commanded  the  tabernacle  and  the  ark  to  go  with  him",  as 

2  Jos.,  Ant.,  X.  ix.  2  Matt,  xxiii.  37.    Liikexi.  47. 

»  2  Mace.  ii.  1-8- 


ON   THE   CHEBAR.  209 

he  went  forth  to  the  mountain  where  Moses  climbed  up 
and  saw  the  heritage  of  God.  And  when  Jeremy  came 
thitker,  he  found  a  hollow  cave,  wherein  he  laid  the  taber- 
nacle, and  the  ark,  and  the  altar  of  incense,  and  so  stopped 
the  door.  And  some  of  those  that  followed  him  came  to 
mark  the  way,  but  they  could  not  find  it.  Which,  when 
Jeremy  perceived,  he  blamed  them,  saying,  As  for  this 
place,  it  shall  be  unknown  until  the  time  that  God  gather 
Ilis  people  again  together,  and  receive  them  into  mercy/' 
The  glory  of  Judas  Maccabaeus  was  heightened  by  a  legend 
that  the  prophet  appeared  to  him  in  a  vision,  as  **'  a  man 
with  gray  hairs  and  exceeding  glorious,  of  a  wonderful  and 
excellent  majesty, ''and  gave  him  a  golden  sword  sent  down 
from  God,  to  fight  the  battles  of  the  Lord.'  He  was  be- 
lieved to  continue  in  heaven  the  constant  intercession  for 
his  race  and  for  the  holy  city,  which  was  believed  to  have 
marked  him,  as  *'a  lover  of  the  brethren,"  while  on  earth.' 
Apocryphal  writings  were  issued  in  his  name,  to  secure 
them  popularity.^  Xor  would  the  nation  believe  that  even 
his  earthly  relations  to  them  were  over  ;  for  so  late  as  the 
days  of  our  Lord,  his  return  was  confidently  expected,  to 
herald  the  advent  of  the  Messiah.*  To  use  the  noble  figure 
of  Milton,  the  clouds  that  had  accompanied  and  obscured 
his  course  in  life,  were  transfigured  to  heavenly  splendours 
after  he  had  departed. 

The  glimpses  of  Jewish  life  on  the  banks  of  the  Chebar, 
after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  are  not  less  interesting  than 
those  we  obtain  of  the  remnant  which  fled  to  Egypt.*  Li 
the  month  Tebet,  corresponding  roughly  to  our  January, 


>  2  Mace.  XV.  1.3, 15.  «  2  Mace.  xv.  14. 

3  See  Bar.  vi.     Hieron.,  on  Matt,  xxvii,  9.  Grotius,  on  Eph.  v.  14. 

«  Matt.  xvi.  14.  »  Ezek.  xxxiii.  21. 
VOL.  VI.-14 


210  ON   THE   CHEBAR. 

in  the  eleventh'  year  of  the  Captivity  and  of  Zedekiah^s 
reign,  the  news  reached  Ezekiel,  in  Babylonia,  that  the 
Temple  had  been  carried  by  assault  and  burned,  along 
with  the  city,  on  the  10th  of  the  fifth  moon' — the  month 
Ab — nearly  our  August — five  months  before  ;  so  long  had 
it  taken  for  the  news  to  reach  the  Euphrates.  Like  all 
true  prophets  and  preachers  in  every  age,  he  was  intensely 
unpopular.  His  predictions  of  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  the 
continuance  of  the  Exile,  and  the  ruin  of  the  Jewish 
State,  had  been  so  bitterly  resented,  that  for  a  number  of 
years  he  had  been  refused  a  public  hearing,  and  had  been 
forced  to  remain  silent,  except  to  visitors  in  his  own  house. 
For  many  months  back,  however,  he  had  felt  that  the 
approaching  fulfilment  of  his  gloomy  forebodings,  through 
the  victory  of  Xebuchadnezzar  in  Palestine,  would  at  last 
silence  all  opposition  to  him  as  a  prophet  speaking  for 
God,  and  once  more  open  the  little  world  of  the  Exile  to 
his  words.  None  could  any  longer  refuse  to  hear  a  seer 
whose  utterances  had  been  so  wonderfully  accomplished. 
His  victory  must  come  very  soon,  and  his  standing  as  a 
true  spokesman  for  Jehovah  be  indisputably  established.^ 
At  last,  a  fugitive  from  the  storming  of  the  Holy  City 
reached  the  settlements  on  the  Chebar,  and  brought  to  the 
prophet's  house  the  first  authentic  news  of  the  awful  dis- 
aster. The  spell  of  enforced  silence  was  at  once  dissolved. 
The  truth  of  his  predictions  was  only  too  evident.  His 
opponents  dared  no  longer  hinder  him  from  the  free 
exercise  of  his  office. 

A  lingering  hope  was  still  cherished,  however,  among 

'  The  Hebrew  has  "  the  twelfth  year,"  but  as  this  would  imply  that  it  took  eighteen 
months  for  the  news  to  reach  Babylon,  it  seems  certain  that  some  copyist  has  intro- 
duced an  error  into  the  text. 

2  Compare  Jer.  xxxix.  2  ;  lii.  13.  '  Ezek.  xxxiii.  33. 


OIT   THE   CHEBAR.  311 

those  around  him,  that  the  survivors  of  the  catastrophe  in 
Palestine  might,  after  all,  be  able  to  maintain  themselves 
as  a  feeble  community,  and  thus  form  a  centre  to  which 
the  exiles  could  ere  long  rally,  through  some  political 
revolution  in  Babylon.  But  Ezekiel  hastened  to  dissipate 
all  such  dreams.  The  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  he  told 
them,  would  be  followed  by  the  utter  ruin  of  the  State  and 
the  complete  desolation  of  the  land.  The  results  of  the 
murder  of  Gedaliah  by  Ishmael  soon  vindicated  this  pre- 
diction. A  second  deportation  to  Babylon  followed,  and  it 
even  seems  probable  that  the  troubles  excited  by  Gedaliah's 
death  continued  to  shew  themselves  in  subsequent  popular 
risings.  Jeremiah  speaks  of  a  third  deportation,  five  years 
after  the  fall  of  the  capital.^  Some  of  the  bands  of  fight- 
ing men  which  had  escaped  the  Chaldasans  not  improbably 
stood  aloof  from  them  permanently,  keeping  the  country 
disturbed  by  harassing  forays.  But,  like  true  Jews,  even 
their  robber  life  was  dignified  by  a  religious  colouring. 
Few  though  they  were,  they  fancied  there  was  no  reason  to 
despair,  since  the  land  had  been  given  to  Abraham,  when 
he  was  alone  in  the  midst  of  the  whole  population  ;  a  much 
more  hopeless  position  than  theirs.  Ezekiel,  however,  pre- 
dicted a  terrible  end  to  these  visionaries.  Such  a  horde, 
wanting  all  true  godliness,  could  neither  preserve  the  land 
by  their  own  efforts,  nor  expect  to  be  maintained  in  it  by 
Jehovah. 

"XXXIII.  24.  Son  of  man  ^  (said  the  Divine  Voice  to  the  prophet* 
apparently  soon  after  the  news  of  the  great  catastrophe  reached  him)— 
those  who  still  live  amidst  the  ruins  of  the  hind  of  Israel  say  :  '  Abra- 
ham was  (only)  one  (man)  and  (yet)  he  inherited  the  land.  But  we  are 
many,  and  the  land  is  given  us  for  an  inheritance.' 

»  Jer.  m,  30.  a  Ezek.  xxxiii.  24. 


212  OK   THE   CHEBAR. 

"  25.  Say  to  them,  therefore,^  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Ye  eat 
with  the  blood,  and  lift  up  your  eyes  to  your  idols,  and  shed  blood  ; 
and  can  you  hope  to  possess  the  land  ?  26.  Ye  support  yourselves  by 
the  sword  and  by  violence,'''  (not  by  justice  and  righteousness)  ;  ye 
work  deeds  of  darkness,  ye  defile  each  man  his  neighbour's  wife,  and 
shall  ye  possess  the  land  ?  27.  Speak  thus,  therefore,  to  them,  Thus 
says  the  Lord  Jehovah  :  As  truly  as  1  live,  those  who  live  in  the 
ruined  towns  will  fall  by  the  sword,  and  those  who  live  in  the  open 
country  will  I  give  to  the  wild  beasts  for  meat,  and  those  who  lurk  in 
strongholds  and  caves  will  die  of  the  pestilence  !  28.  For  I  will  lay 
the  land  utterly  desolate,  and  the  pride  in  her  strength  will  cease,  and 
the  mountains  of  Israel  will  be  so  desolate  that  no  one  will  pass 
through  them.  29.  And  when  I  have  thus  laid  the  country  utterly 
desolate,  for  all  the  abominations  they  have  committed,  men  will 
acknowledge  that  I  am  Jehovah  !  " 

If  the  prospects  of  the  wild  bands  still  wandering  over 
Judaea  were  thus  dark,  the  apathy  and  ungodliness  of  the 
exiles  on  the  Chebar  gave  little  hope  of  religious  earnest- 
ness being  speedily  awakened  among  them.  Ezekiel  could 
now  speak  freely.  His  brethren,  awed  by  the  fulfilment  of 
the  prophecies  respecting  Jerusalem,  no  longer  interrupted 
or  opposed  him,  but  honoured  him  with  a  hypocritical 
respect,  and  affected  to  bow  to  his  authority.  They 
kept  talking  of  him,  says  the  sacred  narrative,'  in  the 
shadow  of  their  doors  and  houses,  and  invited  each  other 
to  go  to  him  and  hear  his  addresses.  Coming  in  crowds, 
they  sat  before  him  with  the  devout  air  of  true  servants 
of  Jehovah,  and  professed  themselves  delighted  with  his 
words,  while  they  still  secretly  clung  to  their  old  sins. 
But  the  prophet  saw  through  their  insincerity.  His  dis- 
courses, he  told  them,  simply  tickled  their  ears,  like  a 
love-song  well  rendered,  with  its  pleasant  accompaniment 
of  the  lute  or  guitar  ;  they  heard  him,  and  then  dismissed 

J  Ezek.  xxxiii.  25  29. 

a  Literally,  "  stand  upon  the  eword."  ^  Ezek.  xxxiii.  30-33. 


ON  THE  CHEBAE.  213 

all  thought  of  his  words.  But  the  judgments  of  God,  he 
assured  them,  were  not  exhausted.  Such  obduracy  would 
bring  fresh  visitations,  and  under  the  infliction  of  these 
they  would  at  last  be  forced  to  own,  not  in  form  only,  but 
sincerely,  that  they  had  been  listening  to  a  true  prophet  of 
Jehovah. 

Now  that  Jerusalem  had  fallen,  the  prophet's  addresses 
to  the  people  were  necessarily  changed  in  tone.  The  re- 
proaches of  former  days  would  have  been  out  of  place.  To 
rouse  the  nation  to  spiritual  life  was  wiser  and  better. 
Like  all  his  order,  Ezekiel  believed  that  the  kingdom  of 
God,  as  represented  by  his  race,  could  not  perish.  Better 
days  would  come.  Henceforward,  therefore,  he  sought  to 
cheer  and  revive  his  brethren  by  keeping  before  them  this 
great  hope,  even  in  the  midst  of  their  despair  and  ruin. 
But  national  restoration  could  be  attained  only  by  a  deep 
sense  of  the  guilt  of  the  past,  and  sincere  reformation. 
While,  therefore,  maintaining  the  certainty  of  a  happy 
future,  notwithstanding  all  the  confusion  of  the  present, 
he  did  not  keep  back  the  conditions  on  which  alone  it 
could  be  secured.  But,  these  fulfilled,  there  were  no 
bounds  to  its  glory. 

Hence,  in  the  opening  chapter  of  this  new  phase  of  his 
ministry,'  Ezekiel,  first  of  all,  reminded  his  fellow-exiles, 
so  long  indifferent  or  opposed  to  him,  of  the  true  office  of  a 
prophet,  on  their  thorough  realization  of  which  the  hope 
of  sincere  reformation  depended.  The  word  of  Jehovah 
came  to  him,  he  tells  us,  with  the  following  message  : 

•'XXXIII.  2.  Son  of  man! 2  say  to  the  sons  of  thy  people,  When  I 
bring  war  on  a  country,  and  the  people  choose  a  man  from  their  midst, 
and  set  him  on  the  watch-tower  (to  look  out) ;  'S.  and  he  sees  the  enemy  ^ 

»  Ezek.  xxxiii.  a  Ezek.  x^uciii.  2-3.  s  Literally,  "  swora." 


214  ON  THE   CHEBAR. 

coming,  and  blows  his  trumpet  and  warns  tlie  people;  4.  if  anyone 
hear  his  war  horn  and  neglect  the  warning,'  so  that  the  sword  comes 
and  cuts  him  off,  his  blood  is  on  his  own  head.  5.  He  heard  the  horn, 
and  took  no  heed,  his  blood  is  on  himself.  Had  he  taken  warning  he 
would  have  been  saved. 

"  6.  But  if  the  watcher  see  the  foe  coming,  and  do  not  blow  the 
trumpet,  and  the  people  are  not  warned,  so  that  the  sword  comes  and 
cuts  off  one  of  them,  the  victim  dies  by  his  own  fault,  (for  he  should 
have  been  on  his  guard),  but  I  will  demand  his  blood  at  the  hand  of 
the  watcher  ! 

"7.  I  have  set  thee,  son  of  man,  as  watcher  for  the  house  of  Israel, 
that  when  thou  hearest  aught  from  My  mouth,  thou  mayest  warn  them 
of  it  in  My  name.  8.  If  I  say  to  the  wicked,  '  Wicked  one,  thou  must 
surely  die,'  and  thou  warnest  him  not'-'  from  his  evil  way,  that  wicked 
man  will  (certainly)  die  for  his  sin,  but  I  will  require  his  blood  at  thy 
hand.  9.  If,  however,  thou  hast  warned  the  wicked  man  of  his  peril, 
and  he  does  not  turn,  he  shall  die  for  his  sin,  but  thou  hast  saved  thy 
soul." 

The  true  prophet  is  thus  required  to  warn  the  sinner  of 
the  impending  judgments  of  God,  as  the  look-out  man  on 
the  watch-tower  is  required  to  give  timely  and  loud  notice 
of  the  approach  of  the  foe.  Safety,  therefore,  demanded 
that  the  prophet  have  free  speech.  But  that  God  should 
have  given  them  a  true  seer  in  their  midst,  was  a  sure  proof 
of  His  favour,  which  might  well  keep  off  despair.  For 
Jehovah  would  fain  save  the  wicked,  and  threatens  wrath 
through  His  prophet  only  that  every  one  may  take  heed 
and  reform.  There  is  still  time  for  this  as  long  as  His  final 
judgment  has  not  fallen. 

"  10.  Speak  thus,  therefore,  0  son  of  man,  to  the  house  of  Israel: 
(Ye  have  said  rightly,^  The  punishment  of)  our  transgressions  and  sins 
presses  us  down,  and  we  decay  to  nothing  through  them  ;  *  how  then 
can  we  hope  to  live  (again  as  a  nation)  ?    11.  Tell  them,  As  (surely  as) 

*  Ezek.  xxxiii.  4-11.  '  Literally,  "the  wicked." 

3  The  word  translated  thus  means  also  "  rightly,"  "  truly." 

4  The  figure  is  that  of  a  decaying  corpse. 


O:^   THE   CHEBAR.  215 

1  live,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the 
wicked;  My  delight  is  that  he  should  turn  from  his  way  and  live! 
Turn  ye,  turn  ye,  from  your  evil  ways;  for  why  will  ye  die,  0  house  of 
Israel?" 

Self-righteousness,  ever  disposed  to  justify  itself,  had 
adopted  among  the  exijes  a  comfortable  theory,  that  they 
were  punished  for  the  sins  of  their  forefathers  rather  than 
for  their  own.  Ezekiel  had  often  exposed  this  self-decep- 
tion in  the  past,*  but  he  again  shews  its  hollowness. 

"XXXIII.  12.  Say,'*  therefore,  thou  son  of  man,  to  the  sons  of  thy 
people:  The  righteousness  of  the  righteous  will  not  save  him  in  the 
day  of  his  transgression,  and  the  wicked  will  not  fall*  through  his 
wickedness,  in  the  day  when  he  turns  from  it.  Nor  will  the  righteous 
preserve  his  life  by  having  been  so,  in  the  day  that  he  sins.  13.  Though 
I  say  to  the  righteous,  '  He  shall  surely  live,'  yet  if  he  trust  to  his  right- 
eousness, and  commit  iniquity,  all  his  righteous  deeds  shall  not  be  re- 
membered, but  he  shall  die  for  the  sin  that  he  has  done.  14.  And  in 
the  same  way,  though  I  say  to  the  wicked,  'Thou  shalt  surely  die,' 
yet  if  he  turn  from  his  sin  and  do  what  is  Just  and  right;  15.  if  he 
give  back  the  pledge  (unrighteously  detained),  restore  what  he  has 
robbed,  and  walk  in  the  statutes  of  life,  doing  no  evil,  he  shall  surely 
live,  he  shall  not  die.  16.  All  his  sins  that  he  has  done  will  be  no 
more  remembered;  he  now  does  what  is  just  and  right;  he  shall  surely 
live.  17.  Yet  the  sons  of  thy  people  say,  '  The  way  of  the  Lord  is  not 
just.'     But  it  is  their  way  that  is  not  just  ! 

"  18.  When  the  righteous  turns  from  his  righteousness  and  does  evil, 
he  will  die  for  it.  19.  But  if  the  wicked  turn  from  his  wickedness, 
and  does  what  is  just  and  right,  he  shall  live  for  it.  20.  Yet  ye  say, 
'  The  way  of  the  Lord  is  not  just.'  O  house  of  Israel,  I  will  judge  you, 
every  one  after  his  own  ways." 

Such  was  the  address  with  which  Ezekiel  re-opened  his 
long-suspended  public  ministry.  Responsible  to  God,  as  a 
divinely  ordained  preacher  of  righteousness,  it  was  his  im- 
perative duty  to  tell  his  people  their  sins ;  to  shrink  from 

•  Ezek.  iii.  20  ;  xviii.  24,  26,  27.  2  Ezek.  xxxiii.  12-20. 

'  Literally,  "  stumble." 


216  ON"   THE   CHEBAR. 

doing  so  was  to  imperil  his  own  soul.  On  their  part,  it  was 
no  less  imperative  that  they  should  repent,  and  honour  the 
law  of  God  in  their  hearts  and  lives.  Thus  alone  could 
they  bring  about  the  glorious  days  for  which  they  longed. 
In  his  next  discourse,  he  passed  from  the  sins  of  the  people 
to  those  of  their  rulers  and  wealthy  or  powerful  citizens. 
Their  ''  shepherds ^^  had  hitherto  sought  only  their  own  ad- 
vantage, not  that  of  their  flock  :  injustice  and  violence  had 
prevailed  instead  of  right  and  truth,  and  the  people  had 
been  plundered  and  oppressed,  till  at  last,  in  great  part 
through  the  fault  of  their  ''shepherds,''  utter  ruin  had 
overtaken  the  commonwealth. 

The  word  of  Jehovah  came  to  him,  he  tells  us,  as  fol- 
lows : 

"XXXIV.  2.  Son  of  man,'  prophesy  against  tlic  shepherds^  of  Israel, 
prophesy  and  say  to  them,  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jeliovah  to  the  shep- 
herds :  Woe  to  the  shepherds  of  Israel  that  fed  (only)  themselves  ! 
Should  shepherds  not  rather  feed  the  flocks  ?  3.  Ye  ate  the  fat '  and 
clothed  yourselves  with  the  wool ;  ye  killed  the  fatted  sheep ;  ye  fed 
not  the  flock  !  4.  Ye  did  not  strengthen  the  weak,  or  heal  the  sick, 
or  bind  up  the  injured,  or  lead  back  the  strayed,  or  seek  the  lost,  but 
ruled  lawlessly  and  with  cruelty ;  5.  so  that  the  flock  was  scattered  for 
want  of  (ti-ue)  shepherds,  and  became  meat  to  all  the  beasts  of  the  field, 
and  was  dispersed  everywhere.  6.  My  sheep  wandered  over  all  the 
mountains  and  over  every  high  hill,  and  were  scattered  over  the  whole 
earth,  and  no  one  asked  after  them  or  sought  for  them." 

But  Jehovah  will  deliver  His  flock  from  such  false 
shepherds.  The  state  of  things  that  had  prevailed  before 
the  fall  of  the  nation  would  not  obtain  after  its  future 
restoration. 

"  7.  Therefore,  ye  shepherds,  hear  the  word  of  Jehovah:  8.  As  I  live, 
says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  because  My  flock  was  made  a  prey,  and  My 
sheep  became  food  to  every  beast  of  the  field  through  being  left  shep- 

'  Ezek.  xxxiv.  2-8.  "^  Kings.  ^  Milk,  butter,  etc.    Sinend. 


ON   THE   CHEBAR.  217 

herdless,  and  because  My  sheplierds  did  not  seaich  for  them,  but  fed 
themselves  and  not  My  flock:  9.  therefore  '  hear  the  word  of  Jehovah,  ye 
shepherds:  10.  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Behold  I  am  coming  to  the 
shepherds,  and  I  will  require  My  flock  at  their  hand,  and  will  order  it 
that  they  no  longer  feed  the  flock,  nor  even  themselves,  and  I  will  rescue 
My  sheep  from  their  jaws,  so  that  they  shall  no  more  be  food  for  them." 

Jehovah  Himself  will  henceforth  take  the  matter  into 
His  own  hands.  While  He  inflicts  judgment  on  the 
heathe  1,  He  will  gather  together  His  scattered  flock, 
and  lead  them  back  to  their  own  land,  where  they  will 
have  the  richest  pasture  and  the  tenderest  care. 

"11.  For  thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Behold,  I  Myself,  even  I, 
will  both  inquire  after  My  sheep  and  take  care  of  them.  12.  As 
a  shepherd  takes  care  of  his  scattered  flock  when  he  is  in  the  midst 
of  them,  so  will  I  care  for  My  sheep,  and  deliver  them  from  all  places 
to  which  they  have  been  scattered,  in  the  day  of  clouds  and  darkness. 
13.  And  I  will  lead  them  out  from  among  the  peoples,  and  gather 
them  from  the  lands,  and  bring  them  to  their  own  country,  and  feed 
them  on  the  mountains  of  Israel,  in  the  valleys,  and  in  all  the  inhab- 
ited parts  of  the  land.  14.  1  will  feed  them  on  good  pasture,  and  their 
fold  will  be  on  the  high  mountains  of  Israel.  They  shall  lie  down 
there  in  a  safe  fold,  and  will  have  fat  pasture  on  the  hills  of  Israel. 
15.  I  will  feed  My  flock,  and  cause  them  to  lie  down,  says  the  Lord 
Jehovah.  16.  I  will  seek  for  the  lost,  and  bring  back  what  has  been 
frightened  away,  and  bind  up  what  has  been  hurt,  and  make  strong 
what  is  sick.  But  I  will  destroy  the  fat  and  lusty,  and  feed  them  with 
(the)  punishment  (which  is  their  due)  !  '* 

As  the  kings  acted  towards  the  whole  people,  so  did 
the  stronger  in  the  community  to  the  weak.  The  flock 
had  not  only  worthless  shepherds  ;  there  were  among  them 
hateful  rams  and  he-goats — rich  and  powerful  men — which 
kept  the  weaker  slieep  from  the  pasture.  These  Jehovah 
will  visit,  dealing  with  all  as  is  right,  and  He  will  finally 
unite  the  whole  flock  under  one  shepherd. 

»  Ezek.  xxxiv.  9-16. 


218  ON   THE   CHEBAK. 

"  17.  As  for  you,'  0  My  sheep,  thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Behold 
I  will  judge  between  one  sheep  and  another;  that  is,  between  the  rams 
and  he-goats,  (and  the  rest  of  the  flock).  18.  Is  it  not  enough  that 
you  have  eaten  down  the  good  pastures,  (ye  rams  and  he-goats) ;  must 
ye  also  tread  down  with  your  feet  what  remains  ?  Is  it  not  enough 
that  you  have  drunk  up  the  settled  and  clear  water ;  must  you  also 
foul  what  remains  with  your  hoofs  ?  19.  And  that  (through  this)  My 
flock  eat  what  you  have  trodden  down,  and  drink  what  you  have 
fouled  ? 

"20.  Therefore,  thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah  to  them:  Behold  I, 
even  I,  will  judge  between  the  fat  and  lean  sheep.  21.  Because  ye 
have  thrust  with  side  and  shoulder,  and  pushed  aside  all  the  weaklings 
with  your  horns,  till  you  have  scattered  them,  22.  therefore  I  will  help 
My  sheep,  so  that  they  may  no  longer  be  a  prey,  and  I  will  judge 
between  sheep  and  sheep.  23.  And  I  will  set  up  a  single  shepherd 
over  them,  who  will  (really)  feed  them.  My  servant  David;  he  will  feed 
them,  and  be  their  shepherd.  24.  And  I,  Jehovah,  will  be  their  God, 
and  My  servant  David  will  be  a  prince  in  their  midst;  I,  Jehovah, 
have  spoken  it  !  " 

Under  this  prince,  Israel  will  dwell  in  peace  and  se- 
curity. 

"25.  And  I  will  make  a  covenant  of  peace  with  them,  and  destroy 
evil  beasts  out  of  the  land,  and  My  flock  will  dwell  safely  in  the  past- 
ure-country, and  sleep  in  the  woods.^  26.  And  I  will  bless  them  and 
the  circuit  of  My  hill,^  and  send  rain  in  its  season;  there  will  be 
showers  of  blessing.*  27.  The  tree  of  the  field  will  yield  its  fruit,  and 
the  earth  its  increase,  and  they  will  live  securely  in  their  own  land, 
and  know  that  I  am  Jehovah,  when  I  have  broken  the  bows  of  their 
yoke,  and  delivered  them  from  the  hand  of  those  who  held  them  as 
slaves.  28.  They  will  no  longer  be  a  prey  to  the  heathen  (nations),  nor 
shall  the  beast  of  the  field  devour  them,  but  they  will  dwell  safely, 
none  making  them  afraid.  29.  And  I  will  give  their  soil  rich  fer- 
tility,^ and  they  will  no  more  be  destroyed  by  hunger  in  the  land,  or 

^  Ezek.  xxxiv.  17-29.  ^  Hebrew,  yaar.  ^  The  land  of  Canaan. 

*  The  word  used  is  that  employed  for  the  copious  showers  of  November  and 
December.    Herzog,  vol.  xi.  p.  26. 

s  Literally,  "I  will  make  to  rise  up  for  them  a  plantation  of  name,"  that  is,  the 
soil  which  is  planted  will  be  famous  for  its  yield,  through  the  "  showers  of  blessing," 
verse  26.     The  mountains  of  Israel  had  long  lain  desolate,  chap,  xxxiii.  28. 


OK   THE   CHEBAR.  219 

bear  any  longer  the  reproach  of  the  heathen.  30.  And  they  will 
know  that  I,  Jehovah,'  their  God,  am  with  them,  and  that  they  are  My 
people,  the  house  of  Israel,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah.  31.  But  be  ye 
men,  0  My  flock,  the  sheep  of  My  pasture;  I  am  your  God,  says  the 
Lord  Jehovah  !  " 

Obedience  to  the  teaching  of  the  prophets,  and  sincere 
loyalty  to  Jehovah,  would  tlins  bring  about  spiritual  and 
temporal  regeneration.  Still  more  ;  to  secure  the  glory  of 
the  restored  Israel,  its  enemies  Avould  be  destroyed.  Edom 
is  selected  as  tlie  representative  of  the  heathen  by  whom 
Judah  had  been  at  last  brought  to  ruin.  Bitterly  hostile 
to  the  Jews  for  ages,  it  gloried  in  the  triumph  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar. Since  that  time,  moreover,  it  had  seized  a 
large  part  of  the  territory  of  Judah,  which  it  now  held.' 
It  would  at  last  be  shewn,  however,  that  Jehovah  was  with 
His  people  !  Their  prosperity  would  be  secured,  not  only 
by  a  blessing  on  the  land  itself,  but  also  by  the  destruction 
of  all  their  foes. 

"XXXV.  1.  The  word  of  Jehovah  came  to  me,  saying,  2.  Son  of 
man,  turn  thy  face  towards  Mount  Seir,  and  prophesy  against  it.  3. 
Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah :  Behold,  I  am  coming  to  thee,  0  Mount 
Seir,  and  will  stretch  out  My  hand  against  thee,  and  make  thee  waste 
and  desolate.  4.  I  will  lay  thy  towns  in  ruins,  and  thou  shalt  be  a 
desert,  and  shalt  know  that  T  am  Jehovah.  5.  Because  thou  hast 
cherished  undying  hatred  (against  Israel),  and  gavest  up  its  sons  to  the 
sword  in  the  time  of  their  trouble,  the  time  when  iniquity  triumphed :  ^ 
6.  therefore,  as  I  live,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  I  will  turn  thee  into 
blood,  and  blood  will  pursue  thee!  Thou  hast  not  hated  blood-(shed- 
ding),  and  (thirst  for)  blood  will  pursue  thee!  7.  I  will  make  Mount 
Seir  waste  and  desolate,  and  cut  off  from  it  every  one  who  either  enters 
or  leaves  it,  8.  and  I  will  fill  its  mountains  with  its  slain.     On  thy  hills, 

*  Ezek.  xxxiv.  30,  31;  xxxv.  1-8. 

2  Ezek.  ^^i.  24.    Jer.  xlix.  1.    Lam.  iv.  21.    Ewald's  Gts^cMchte,  vol.  iv.  p.  105. 

3  A.  v.,  "In  the  time  of  (our)  sorcf^t  punishment,"  Ewald  ;  "  Of  the  iniquity  of 
the  end,"  Chcj'ne  and  Clarke  ;  "  When  iniquity  brought  the  end,"  Eichhorn. 


220  OT^   THE   CHEBAR. 

and  in  all  thy  ravines  and  torrent  beds,  the  slain  by  the  sword  shall  fall 
9.  I  will  make  thee  perpetual  deserts,'  and  thy  towns  will  not  be  in- 
habited, that  ye  may  know  I  am  Jehovah.  10.  Because  thou  hast  said, 
'Both  peoples  (Israel  and  Judah)  and  -both  (their)  territories  shall  be 
mine,  and  we  shall  take  them  in  possession,' — though  Jehovah  dwelt 
there — 11.  therefore,  as  I  Ha'c,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  I  will  do  to 
thee  as  thy  rage  and  jealousy  shewn  against  My  people,  in  thy  hatred 
of  them,  deserves.  I  will  make  Myself  known  among  thy  sons,  when 
I  shall  judge  thee.  12.  And  thou  shalt  know  that  I,  Jehovah,  have 
heard  all  the  words  of  scorn  thou  hast  spoken  against  the  mountains 
of  Israel,  saying:  '  They  are  laid  waste!  They  are  given  to  us  to  pos- 
sess!' 2  13.  You  have  talked  loftily  with  your  mouth  against  Me,  and 
have  heaped  up  your  words  against  Me:  I  have  heard  it!  14.  Thus 
says  the  Lord  Jehovah :  When  the  whole  earth  rejoices,  I  will  make 
thee  a  desolation.  15.  As  thou  wert  glad  over  the  inheritance  of  the 
house  of  Israel,  because  it  was  laid  waste,  so  will  1  do  to  thee.  Thou 
shalt  be  a  desert,  0  Mount  Seir,  and  all  Edom ;  and  they  shall  know 
that  I  am  Jehovah." 

Such  would  be  the  fate  of  the  enemies  of  the  people 
of  God.  Turning  now  to  the  land  of  Israel,  the  prophet 
cheers  his  countrymen  by  the  promises  of  Jehovah,  that 
it  would  see  the  cup  of  sorrow  its  children  had  drained, 
put  to  the  lips  of  all  their  heathen  foes. 

"  XXXVI.  1.  Further,  son  of  man,  prophesy  to  the  mountains  of 
Israel,  saying:  Ye  mountains  of  Israel,  hear  the  word  of  Jehovah. 
2.  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Because  the  enemy  said  respecting 
you:  'Ha!  the  ancient  hills  are  ours  now: '  3.  therefore  prophesy  and 
say:  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  Because  they  laid  you  waste  and 
panted  after  you  on  every  side,  that  you  might  become  a  possession  to 
the  remnant  of  nations  (spared  by  the  Chaldeans),  till  ye  rose  on  the 
lips  of  every  idle  talker,  and  were  in  evil  report  among  the  peoples: 
4.  therefore,  ye  mountains  of  Israel,  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord 
Jehovah.  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  to  the  mountains,  and  hills, 
and  ravines,^  and  plains,  and  to  the  desolate  ruins  and  forsaken  towns, 
which  served  for  a  prey  and  a  scoff  to  the  remnant  of  the  heathen 
round:     5.  Verily,  in  the  glow  of  My  anger  do  I  speak  against  the 

»  Ezek.  XXXV.  9-15  ;  xxxvi.  1-5. 

2  Literally,  "for  food.'"  '  Literally,  "torrents." 


ON  THE   CHEBAR.  221 

remnant  of  the  heathen,  and  against  all  Edom,  who  with  gladness  of 
heart  and  deadly  scorn  have  appropriated  My  land,  to  desolate  and 
plunder  it — G.  Prophesy,*  therefore,  respecting  the  land  of  Israel,  and 
say  to  the  mountains,  and  hills,  and  ravines,  and  plains.  Thus  says  the 
Lord  Jehovah :  Behold,  I  have  spoken  in  My  wrath  and  indignation, 
because  ye  have  borne  the  contempt  of  the  nations.  7.  Therefore, 
thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  I  have  lifted  up  My  hand  (and  sworn); 
verily  the  nations  round  you  shall  bear  their  (share  of)  contempt  (in 
turn) !  " 

On  the  otker  hand,  God  will  bless  His  own  land. 

"8.  But  ye,  0  mountains  of  Israel,  shall  shoot  out  your  verdure 
and  yield  your  fruits  to  My  people  Israel,  for  they  will  soon  come ! 
9.  For,  behold,  I  am  for  you,  and  will  turn  My  face  towards  you,  and 
ye  shall  be  plouglied  and  sown.  10.  And  I  will  increase  men  on  you 
— all  the  house  of  Israel — all  of  it,  and  the  towns  will  be  inhabited 
and  the  ruins  rebuilt.  11.  And  I  will  increase  men  and  cattle  on  you. 
and  they  will  multiply  and  be  fruitful,  and  I  will  make  you  be  in- 
habited as  in  former  times,  and  shew  you  more  good  than  in  your 
earlier  days,  that  ye  may  know  that  I  am  Jehovah.  13.  I  will  make 
men — My  people  Israel — walk  on  you,  and  they  will  possess  you,  and 
you  will  be  their  inheritance,  and  you  will  no  more  be  left  without  in- 
habitants.* 13.  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  Because  they  say  to  you, 
'Thou  land  (of  Israel)  art  a  devourer  of  men,^  and  hast  made  thy 
people  childless;'  14.  therefore  thou  shalt  no  longer  devour  men,  nor 
make  thy  people  childless  any  more,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah.  15. 
Neither  will  I  cause  thee  to  bear  any  longer  the  contempt  of  the 
nations,  nor  wilt  thou  be  any  more  the  scorn  of  the  peoples,  nor  cause 
thy  sons*  to  be  childless  any  more."  * 

The  banishment  of  Israel  had  been  brought  about  by  its 
own  sins.  But  the  heathen  among  whom  they  were  scat- 
tered had  profaned  the  Divine  name  on  their  account,  im- 
puting their  calamities  to  the  weakness  of  their  national 
god. 

"  17.  Son  of  man,  when  Israel  dwelt  in  their  own  land,  they  defiled 
it  by  their  way  and  their  doings;  their  conduct  was  vile  in  My  eyes,  as 

*  Ezek.  xxxvi.  6-17.  '  Literally,  "orphaned."  »  Feminine. 

*  Literally,  "  nation."  *  Correction  of  tlij  Hebrew  by  the  Maaoritee. 


222  ON  THE   CHEBAR. 

the  foulest  uncleanness.  18.  Therefore,  I  poared  out  My  wrath  on 
them  for  the  blood  they  had  shed  in  their  land,'  and  because  they  had 
polluted  it  with  their  foul  gods.  19.  And  I  scattered  them  among 
the  nations,  and  they  were  dispersed  through  the  lands;  I  judged  them 
according  to  their  way  and  their  doings.  20.  But  when  they  came  to 
the  heathen  peoples,  they  made  My  holy  name  to  be  profaned,  for  men 
said  of  them,  '  These  are  Jehovah's  people,  and  (yet)  are  driven  out  of 
His  land ! '  31.  But  now  I  must  vindicate  My  holy  name,  thus  brought 
into  dishonour  among  the  heathen,  through  Israel." 

Their  deliverance  would  be  due  to  this  jealousy  of  His 
owu  honour,  on  the  part  of  Jehovah,  not  to  any  merit  in 
His  people. 

"22.  Therefore  say  to  the  house  of  Israel,  Thus  says  the  Lord 
Jehovah :  I  do  this  not  for  your  sakes,  0  house  of  Israel,  but  for  My 
holy  name's  sake,  which  ye  have  caused  to  be  dishonoured  among  the 
heathen,  among  whom  ye  are  come.  23.  I  shall  therefore  vindicate 
the  holiness  of  My  great  name,  which  ye  have  caused  to  be  dishonoured 
among  the  heathen,  (bringing  discredit  on  it  among  them),  that  the 
heathen  may  know  that  I  am  Jehovah,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  when  I 
shall  shew  Myself  holy  in  you  before  their  eyes.  24.  For  I  will  take 
you  out  from  among  the  heathen,  and  gather  you  from  all  countries, 
and  bring  you  again  to  your  own  land." 

To  restore  former  relations  with  them,  however,  was  im- 
possible while  they  were  still  estranged  in  heart.  Nor 
could  any  radical  change  be  expected  from  their  own  in- 
itiative. Their  conversion  must  come  from  God  Himself. 
He  will,  therefore,  make  them  in  reality  His  children,  by 
bringing  about  in  their  hearts  a  true  spiritual  change.  He 
will  cleanse  them  from  their  sins  and  put  His  spirit  into 
their  renewed  hearts. 

"  25.  And  that  ye  may  be  cleansed  (from  your  sins),  I  will  sprinkle 
clean  water  upon  you,  and  I  will  make  you  clean  from  all  your  filthiness 
and  from  all  your  foul  gods.     26.  And  I  will  give  you  a  new  heart 

>  In  violeuce  and  by  human  sacrifices.    £zek.  xxxvi.  18-26. 


ox   THE    CHEBAR.  223 

and  put  a  new  spirit  witliin  you ;  I  will  take  away  the  heart  of  stone 
out  of  your  flesh  and  give  you  a  heart  of  flesh ;  27.  and  I  will  put  My 
spirit  within  you,'  that  ye  may  walk  in  My  statutes  and  keep  My  laws 
and  do  them,  38.  and  ye  shall  dwell  in  the  land  which  I  gave  to  your 
fathers,  and  ye  shall  be  My  people,  and  I  will  be  your  God." 

They  will  henceforward  loathe  their  former  ways,  and 
God  will  bless  the  land  and  give  them  prosperity.  But  all 
this  is  a  free  gift,  bestowed  on  the  undeserving. 

"29.  And  I  will  keep  you  from  (again  falling  into)  your  (old)  un- 
cleannesses,  and  will  call  forth  corn  (out  of  the  earth)  and  make  it 
yield  richly,  and  bring  no  famine  on  you.  30.  And  I  will  increase  the 
fruit  of  the  tree,  and  the  yield  of  the  ground,  that  the  reproach  of 
hunger  may  no  more  be  cast  on  you  among  the  heathen.  31.  And  ye 
will  think,  then,  of  your  evil  ways  and  wrong  doings,  and  abhor  your- 
selves for  your  iniquities  and  abominations. 

"  32.  But,  be  it  known  to  you,  that  it  is  not  for  your  sakes  I  do  this, 
says  the  Lord  Jehovah :  be  ashamed  and  blush  for  your  ways,  0  house 
of  Israel! 

'*  33.  Thus  says  the  Lo7*d  Jehovah:  When  I  have  ele;insod  you  from 
all  your  iniquities,  and  caused  you  to  dwell  in  the  towns  of  your  land; 
when  the  ruined  places  are  rebuilt,  34.  and  the  wastes  tilled  again,  so 
that  they  are  no  longer  desert  before  the  eyes  of  all  that  pass  by;  35. 
then  will  men  say,  '  The  land,  which  was  once  desolate,  is  become  like 
the  garden  of  Eden ;  the  waste,  deserted,  and  ruined  towns  are  walled 
round  and  inhabited.'  36.  Then  the  heathen  (peoples)  left  round  you 
will  know  that  I,  Jehovah,  rebuilt  what  was  ruined,  and  planted  again 
what  was  laid  waste.     I,  Jehovah,  have  said  and  will  do  it. 

"37.  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah  :  I  will  yet  be  sought  by  the 
house  of  Israel,  to  do  this  for  them,  (and,  in  answer  to  their  prayers,)  I 
will  increase  them  with  men,  like  a  flock — like  the  flock  for  the  holy 
offerings,  the  flock  at  Jerusalem  in  the  time  of  her  feasts;'  the  cities 
now  deserted  will  be  filled  with  flocks  of  men,  and  all  shall  know  that 
I  am  Jehovah." 

Such  were  some  of  the  discourses  by  which  Ezekiel 
sought  to  rekindle  the  hopes  of  his  fellow-exiles,  and  re- 
call them  to  a  higher  spiritual  life,  in  preparation  for  their 

»  Ezek.  xxxvi.  27-37.  '  2  Chron.  xixv.  7.    Deut.  ivi.  16. 


224  OiH  THE   CHEBAR. 

future  return  to  Palestine.  The  deep  gloom  that  had 
settled  on  all,  however,  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  seemed 
beyond  removal.  The  nation  was,  apparently,  dead. 
Could  it  rise  again  ?  Not  only  was  national  life  gone  ; 
there  remained  nothing  of  Israel  but  some  dry  bones  from 
which  the  flesh  was  wasted  and  gone.  Such  thoughts  may 
have  been  uttered  around  the  prophet.  But  no  difficulty 
shook  his  faith  in  what  Jehovah  had  promised.  Yet  the 
terrible  comparison  of  his  people  to  the  dead  dwelt  in  his 
thoughts,  till  in  the  end  it  rose  before  him  in  a  brighter 
aspect  as  the  central  glory  of  a  prophetic  vision.  In  this 
he  seemed  carried  away  by  the  Spirit  of  Jehovah  to  the 
plain  or  valley  near  Tel  Abib,  familiar  to  him  of  old  as  the 
scene  of  the  vision  of  the  Cherubim.  Now,  however,  to 
his  horror,  he  found  it  full  of  dry,  withering  bones  * — the 
wreck  of  a  vast  host  slain  by  the  sword.  Wandering  over 
the  wide  expanse,  the  multitude  of  these  ghastly  relics  of 
mortality  and  their  bleached  dryness,  the  very  embodi- 
ment of  death,  filled  him  with  awe,  and,  while  thus  over- 
powered, Jehovah  seemed  to  address  him. 

"XXXVII.  3.  'Son  of  man,  will  these  bones  five  (again)?'  Then 
said  I,  '  0  Lord  Jehovah,  Thou  knowest.'  4.  Then  said  He  to  me, 
'Call  to  these  bones,  and  say  to  them,  "  Ye  dry  bones,  hear  the  word 
of  Jehovah.  5.  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah  to  these  bones  :  Behold, 
I  will  cause  breath  to  enter  into  you,  and  ye  shall  live.  6.  And  I  will 
create  sinews  on  you,  and  make  flesh  grow  on  you,  and  cover  you  with 
skin,  and  put  breath  in  you,  and  ye  shall  live,  and  acknowledge  that  I 
am  Jehovah." ' 

"  7.  So  I  prophesied  as  I  was  commanded ;  and  as  I  did  so,  there  was 
a  noise  and  a  commotion,  and  the  bones  came  together,  bone  to  bone. 

8.  And  I  looked,  and,  behold,  sinews  came  on  them  and  flesh  grew 
upon  them,  and  skin  covered  them ;  but  there  was  no  breath  in  them. 

9.  Then  said  he  to  rae,  '  Call,  0  son  of  man,  call  to  the  breath  of  life, 

'  Ezek.  xxxvii.  3-d. 


OK   THE   CHEBAR.  225 

and  say  to  it,  "Come  from  the  four  winds,  0  breath  (of  life),  and 
breathe  into  these  slain,  that  they  may  live." '  10.  So  I  called  as  He 
commanded  me,  and  the  breath  (of  life)  entered  them,  and  they  came 
to  life,  and  stood  up  on  their  feet,  a  very  great  army.  11.  Then  said 
He  to  me,  'Son  of  man,  these  bones  are  the  whole  house  of  Israel! 
Behold,  (your  fellow-exiies)  truly  say,  "  (We  are  not  only  dead,  but)  our 
very  bones  are  (scattered),  dry,  (and  bleached):  we  have  lost  hope,  we 
feel  ourselves  utterly  gone  (as  a  nation)."  13.  Therefore  prophesy  and 
say  to  them.  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Behold,  I  will  open  your 
graves  and  cause  you  to  rise  out  of  them,  and  will  bring  you  to  the 
land  of  Israel.  13.  And  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah,  when  I 
oj>en  (even)  your  graves,  (as  it  were),  and  lead  you  forth  from  them,  0 
my  people,  14.  and  put  My  Spirit  in  you,  so  that  you  may  live  (again) 
and  settle  in  your  own  land.  Then  shall  you  know  that  I,  Jehovah, 
have  spoken,  and  performed,  says  Jehovah.'  " 
TOL.  VI.-15 


226 


ON   THE   CHEBAK. 


-^G^'tiroitJ 


f^m:) 


ON  THE   CHEBAR.  227 

This  cut  shews  the  Egyptian  ideas  of  the  future  world,  which  had  been  for  ages 
known  to  the  Jews.  Ezekiel's  vision  only  describes  a  national  resurrectiou,  but  it 
seems  to  imply  a  belief  in  tlie  resurrection  of  the  body.  See  Dan.  xii.  2.  1  owe  the 
following  explanation  to  my  learned  friend,  Dr.  Birch,  of  the  British  Museum: 

"  The  subject  of  the  plate  is  the  vignette  of  the  125th  chapter  of  the  Ritual.  It  is 
entitled,  '  The  going  to  the  Hall  of  the  two  Truths  and  making  the  deceased  to  see 
the  faces  of  the  gods.'  It  is  the  scene  of  the  great  Judgment  of  the  Dead.  On  the 
left  Osiris  is  seated,  holding  a  crook  in  his  left  hand  and  the  tbree-thonged  whip  in 
his  right.  He  is  mummied  and  on  a  throne.  The  crook  and  whip  have  mystical  sig- 
nifications of  his  power  OA-er  the  lower  world.  The  object  before  him  is  a  panther's 
or  calf's  skin  placed  on  a  pole  stuck  into  a  kind  of  pedestal.  This,  I  think,  indicates 
the  word  ne)n,  or  '  second  life.'  He  is  in  a  shrine.  Before  him  is  inscribed,  '  Osiris, 
the  good  Being,  lord  of  life,  great  god,  ruler  of  eternity,  resident  in  the  land  of  Akar 
(Hades)— resident  in  the  west— lord  of  Abydos,  king  of  ages." 

Before  the  shrine  are  the  following:— 

1.  Two  rows  of  21  gods  of  the  dead,  In  all  42,  each  of  whom  received  a  confession 
of  the  deceased  that  he  had  not  committed  one  of  the  42  sins  which  formed  the 
Egyptian  decalogue.  The  deceased,  Xasamsi,  is  seen  kneeling  and  addressing  them. 
Beneath  the  frieze  of  the  hall  are  (2)  a  table  of  offerings,  gourds,  and  water  plants. 
Under  the  table  are  two  jars  with  water  plants  entwined.  Above  is  an  illegible  in- 
scription apparently  intended  f or  "  the  gift  of  offerings  in  Hades."  3.  Two  forms, 
Shai,  "  Fate,"  and  Renut,  "  her  nurse."  4.  The  symbols  Meskhent,  "  the  cradle."  5. 
The  Amt,  "  devourer  "  of  wicked  souls— annihilation.  6.  Harpakhrat,  on  a  crook, 
the  symbol  of  the  New  Birth.  T.  Thoth,  recording  on  his  patella,  or  writing  desk, 
the  decision  of  the  god  as  to  the  future  state  of  the  soul.  8.  The  balance,  sur- 
mounted by  (9)  the  cynocephalus,  Anubis,  jackal-headed,  holding  the  weights  of  the 
scale  of  Truth  on  the  one  side  of  the  balance,  and  Horns  holding  the  heart  of  the  de- 
ceased on  the  other  scale.  The  inscription  over  the  head  of  these  figures  says,  "  Said 
by  the  lord  of  Hermopolis  (Thoth),  great  god,  chief  of  Hesar— he  has  put  the  heart  of 
the  Osiris  (deceased)  Nasamsi,  in  its  place."  The  other  inscription  in  this  portion 
refers  to  Anubis,  "  The  head  of  the  divine  place  (Anubis)— he  says  bis  heart  is  in 
the  midst  of  the  balance  filled  with  the  Osiris  Nasamsi."  Above,  also,  is  "  Horns," 
the  name  of  the  god.  10.  11.  12.  The  deceased  introduced  by  tlie  Two  Truths  into 
the  Hall.  The  inscription  here  says,  "•  Truth  the  ruler  of  the  west,  she  gives  his  name, 
in  his  abode  he  is  to  be  united  to  his  cell  (body)  for  ever."  The  last  inscription  reads, 
"  Like  him  who  is  head  of  the  west  (Osiris),  she  gives  the  two  hands  to  thee,  Osiris 
Nasamsi,  born  of  the  ladj'  of  the  house  Satarbuni,  whose  word  is  true." 

Of  the  tenant  of  an  Egyptian  mausoleum,  Mr.  Gerald  Massey  gave  this  description 
in  a  recent  lecture  :— "  With  his  viscera  separately  preserved  in  four  canopic  jars,  his 
body  Steeped  for  seventy  days  in  wine  and  natron,  and  bound  up  in  a  linen  swathe, 
some  seven  hundred  yards  in  length,  woven  without  seam ;  his  hair  made  up  into  a 
ball  and  coated  with  bitumen  ;  his  teeth  and  nails  covered  with  gold  leaf  ;  the  collar 
of  Nine  Beads,  worn  by  Isis,  encircling  his  neck,  the  beetle-type  of  transformation 
placed  within  his  breast,  the  mummy  was  deposited  in  the  sarcophagus  called  '  Hen- 
Ankhu  '  (the  chest  of  the  living)  ;  a  copy  of  the  book  of  breath  was  his  pillow,  and 
the  leaves  of  the  book  of  life  were  the  lining  of  his  coifin  ;  his  types  of  protection, 
duration,  and  renewal  were  around  him,  and  with  the  eyes  of  the  sun  and  moon  to 
light  him  through  the  long  darkness,  the  Egyptian  entered  his  tomb,  called  the 
'  Good  Dwelling.'  A  number  of  copies  of  the  Shebti,  or  Double  of  the  Dead,  were 
ranged  in  tlie  Serdab,  to  signify  repetition,  and  the  Ka-image  of  his  spiritual  self  was 
erected  in  the  tomb  aa  his  link  with  the  living." 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    VISIOIT    OF   THE    FUTURE. 

In  the  passages  quoted  in  the  preceding  chapter  we  have 
samples  of  the  preaching  of  the  prophets  of  the  Exile,  of 
whom  Ezekiel  was  only  one.  He  did  not  content  himself, 
however,  with  his  sublime  vision  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  so  well  fitted  to  revive  the  community  from  its 
dejection,  but  followed  it  up,  soon  after,  with  gloAving 
pictures  of  the  glory  of  the  nation  when  thus  restored. 
Aflame  with  patriotic  enthusiasm,  which  in  his  case  was 
identical  with  zeal  for  Jehovah,  he  anticipated  a  wondrous 
future.  The  deportation  of  the  Ten  Tribes  to  Assyria, 
more  than  a  century  and  a  half  before,  had  effaced  all 
ancient  grudges  and  rivalries  from  the  breasts  of  the  Two 
Tribes  then  still  left  in  the  land,  and  had  awakened  a 
spirit  of  brotherhood  which  yearned  for  a  time  when  the 
whole  nation,  so  long  divided  and  estranged,  would  unite 
under  one  head,  as  in  the  happy  days  before  Eehoboam. 
The  prophets  no  less  than  the  people  looked  forward  to 
this  much-desired  consummation.  Hosea '  predicted  its 
certain  attainment  under  some  future  king.  Amos,  Micah, 
Isaiah,  and  Jeremiah,  in  succession,  dwelt  on  it,  to  cheer 
the  darkness  of  troubled  times.  The  day  was  coming  when 
"  Judah  and  Israel  would  be  gathered  again  and  appoint 
themselves  one  head."     ''Ephraim  would  not  envy  Judah, 

1  Eos.  i.  11  ;  iii.  5.    Amos  ix.  11.    Mic.  ii.  13,  13  ;  v.  2.    Isa.  xi.  13.    Jen  iii.  18. 


THE   VISION   OF   THE   FUTURE.  229 

nor  Jiidali  vex  Epliraiin."  "  Judali  would  come,  together 
with  Israel,  out  of  the  land  of  the  North,  to  the  land  of 
their  fathers/'  The  misery  of  the  past  had  risen  in  great 
measure  from  the  rupture  of  the  kingdom.  Constant  civil 
wars  had  weakened  hoth  North  and  South,  and  left  them  a 
prey  to  their  enemies.  The  Ten  Tribes,  with  their  wide 
and  rich  territory,  had  been  so  numerous  and  powerful 
compared  with  Judah,  that  they  had  been  recognized  as, 
virtually,  the  nation  entitled  to  be  known  as  such,  that  is, 
as  ^'  Israel,"  and  it  was  impossible  to  conceive  of  any 
national  restoration  which  would  not  include  them.  Even 
in  EzekieFs  time,  moreover,  their  colonies  still  existed  in 
Assyria,  and  the  deliverance  of  these  seemed  as  easy  as  that 
of  Judah  from  Babylon. 

With  the  confident  expectation  of  this  return  of  all  the 
Twelve  Tribes  to  their  own  country,'  and  their  happy 
union  under  one  ruler,  a  confident  belief  was  cherished 
that  this  king  would  be  either  their  national  hero,  David, 
himself,  returned  to  life  again,  or  one  of  his  descendants. 
It  was  necessarily  taken  for  granted  by  both  prophets  and 
people,  that  the  leader,  thus  expected,  would  restore  the 
kingdom  on  the  lines  of  its  ancient  constitution,  for  they 
knew  nothing  higher.  There  might  be  a  great  advance  in 
the  religious  and  moral  condition  of  the  community,  its 
glory  might  be  immeasurably  developed,  and  its  king 
might  reign  in  hitherto  unimagined  uprightness  ;  but,  at 
its  highest,  the  restored  kingdom  would  only  be  a  nobler 
repetition  of  tliat  of  David.  Hence  the  utterances  of 
Ezekiel,  like  those  of  all  his  order,  could  picture  the 
glories  of    tlie  future,  only  in    imagery  drawn  from   the 

•  Jer.  XXX.  10-18  ;  iii.  18  ;  xxxi.  5.     Ezek.  xxxvi.  24  ;  xvi.  M  ;  xx.  40;  xxxvii.  12; 
xxxix.  25;  xlvii.  13  ;  xxxiv.  23  ;  xi.  15  ;  ix.  9,  etc. 


230  THE   VISION"   OF   THE   FUTURE. 

past.  That  Jewish  ideas  and  aspirations  fill  the  visions 
of  the  prophets,  need  not  therefore  surprise  ns.  It  was 
quite  in  keeping  with  this  inevitable  mode  of  thought  that 
the  prophets  looked  forward  to  the  future  glory  of  Israel,  as 
necessitating  the  return  of  the  Ten  Tribes  from  exile.  Nor 
was  it  possible  for  Ezekiel  to  think  or  speak  except  as  a 
Jew,  with  the  longings  and  expectations  of  his  day.  He 
also,  therefore,  proclaimed  the  approaching  deliverance  of 
the  Ten  Tribes,  and  their  union  with  Judah,  under  a  com- 
mon head,  who,  he  says,  will  be  no  other  than  their  national 
boast,  David,  the  great  king  of  the  yet  undivided  people. 
The  word  of  Jehovah,  he  tells  us,  came  to  him,'  saying  : 

"XXXVII.  16.  Son  of  man,  take  one  rod,  and  write  on  it,  'Judah, 
and  the  sons  of  Israel  (Simeon  and  Benjamin)  united  with  him  ; '  then 
take  another  rod,  and  write  upon  it,  'Joseph,  the  representative^  of 
Ephraim  and  all  the  house  of  (Northern)  Israel  joined  to  it  : '  17.  and 
join  them,  one  rod  to  the  other,  so  that  they  may  be  united  in  thy 
hand.  18.  And  when  the  sons  of  thy  people  say  to  thee,  '  Wilt  thou 
not  shew  us  what  thou  meanest  by  this  ? '  19.  Answer  them :  Thus 
says  the  Lord  Jehovah  :  Behold,  I  will  take  the  rod  of  Joseph,  held 
by  Ephraim,  and  the  tribes  of  Israel  joined  with  him,  and  will  put  it 
to  this  rod  of  Judah,  and  make  them  one  rod,  that  they  may  be  one  in 
My  hand.  20.  (To  teach  thy  people  this)  the  rods  on  which  thou 
writest  shall  be  in  thy  hand,  before  their  eyes  :  21.  and  thou  shalt  say 
to  them  :  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah  :  Behold,  T  will  take  the  sons 
of  Israel  from  among  the  heathen,  whither  they  are  gone,  and  gather 
them  from  all  parts,  and  bring  them  to  their  own  land.  22.  And  I 
will  make  them  one  people  in  the  land,  on  the  mountains  of  Israel, 
and  one  king  shall  reign  over  them  all  :  and  they  will  no  longer  be  two 
peoples,  nor  will  they  any  longer  be  divided  into  two  kingdoms. 
23.  They  will  no  more  defile  themselves  with  their  foul  gods,  or  with 
their  abominations,  or  with  their  (former)  transgressions  ;  but  I  will 
help  them  from  all  their  backslidings  ^  by  which  they  have  sinned,  and 
will  cleanse  them,  and  they  shall  be  My  people,  and  I  will  be  their 

'  Ezek.  xxxvii.  15-23.  2  Literally,  "tree,"  "  rod." 

8  Septuagint.    Ewald.     Hitzig.    Eichhorn. 


THE   YTSTON   OF   THE   FUTURE.  231 

God.  24.  And  My  servant  David  will  be  king  over  them,'  and  they 
will  (thus)  all  have  one  shepherd  ;2  and  they  will  walk  in  My  laws,  and 
keep  My  statutes;,  and  do  them.  25.  And  they  will  dwell  in  the  land 
that  I  gave  to  Jacob,  My  servant,  in  which  your  fathers  dwelt  ;  they 
will  dwell  there,  they,  and  their  children,  and  their  children's  children 
for  ever  ;  and  ^fy  servant  David  will  be  their  prince  for  ever. 

"26.  And  I  will  make  a  covenant  of  peace  with  them,  a  covenant 
which  will  endure  for  ever,  and  I  will  bless  them,^  and  increase  them, 
and  set  My  sanctuary  in  the  midst  of  them  for  evermore.  27.  My 
tabernacle  also  will  be  over  them ;  *  I  will  be  their  God,  and  they  will 
be  My  people.  28.  And  the  heathen  shall  know  that  I,  Jehovah,  set 
apart  Israel  as  holy  (to  Myself),  when  My  sanctuary  shall  be  in  the 
midst  of  them  for  evermore." 

This  exquisite  picture  of  absolute  security  and  pros- 
perity could  not,  however,  be  realized  as  complete  with- 
out an  assurance  of  protection  from  hostile  attacks,  and 
this,  therefore,  is  added.  The  wild  races  of  Scythia  had 
spread  terror  over  all  AVestern  Asia,  in  the  days  of  Josiah, 
and  were  still  remembered  with  dread.  The  heathen 
nations,  as  a  whole,  in  their  opposition  to  the  kingdom  of 
God,  are  represented,  therefore,  under  the  figure  of  a 
second  invasion  of  the  Holy  Land  by  these  barbarous 
hordes.  But  He  who  had  led  His  people  back  from 
captivity  would  prove  Himself  their  Almighty  defender ; 
the  foe  would  be  triumphantly  overthrown,  and  Israel, 
finally  delivered  from  all  fear,  would  enter  on  a  lasting 
career  of  prosperity. 

"XXXVIII.  2.  Son  of  man,*  said  the  word,  set  thy  face  against  Gog, 
of  the  land  of  Magog,  the  prince  of  Rosh,  Meshech,  and  Tubal,'  and 

>  Ezek.  xxxiv.  23.  «  Ezek.  xxxvii.  24-28.  »  Targum. 

■•  They  will,  as  it  were,  dwell  in  My  tent.  *  Ezek.  xxxviii. 

*  " Rosh,"  tranplated  "chief  in  ver.  2,  is  regarded  as  a  proper  name  by  some, 
but  most  translators  render  the  phrase  as  in  the  text.  Schrader  i  Keili/iiichnf  ten,  2te 
Aufg.,  1882)  accepts  Magog  as  equivalent  to  Scythians,  their  country  being,  appar- 
ently, the  southern  parts  of  European  Russia,  and  the  wild  regions  north  of  the  Cau- 
casus.   Tubal  aud  Meshech  are  as  frequently  associated  together  m  the  Assyrian  in- 


232  THE  visio^r  of  the  future. 

piophesy  against  him,  saying,  3.  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  '  Behokl, 
I  am  coming  to  thee,  0  Gog,  thou  prince  of  Rosh,  Meshech,  and 
Tubal ;  4.  and  will  lure  thee  on,  and  put  rings  in  thy  jaws,'^  and  draw 
thee  forth,  thou  and  all  thine  army,  horses  and  riders,  all  gorgeously 
clad,  a  vast  multitude  with  great  shields  and  small,  all  wielding  swords. 
5.  Persia,  Ethiopia,  and  Phut '  are  with  them,  all  of  them  with  shield 
and  helmet;  G.  (the  Cimmerian)  Gomer,*  and  all  his  squadrons;  the 

scriptions  as  in  the  Old  Testament.  In  these  inscriptions  Tubal  is  written  "Tabal," 
and,  according  to  Schrader  (KeUinschriften,  83),  bordered  on  Cilicia,  and  seems  to  have 
been  what  was  afterwards  Cappadocia.  It  was  famous  for  "  great  horses."  Meshech 
he  regards  as  having  lain  N.E.  of  Cappadocia,  in  lower  Armenia.  It  is  mentioned  by 
Tiglath-Pileser  I.  (b.c.  1100)  along  with  Tubal  or  Tabal. 
1  Ezek.  xxxviii.  3-6.  "  See  vol.  v.  p.  87. 

3  Hebrew.  These  are  in  the  farthest  south  from  Babylon,  where  Ezekiel  lived. 
The  Asiatic  Gush,  or  Ethiopia,  lay  in  Central  and  Northern  Babylon.  Fried.  Delitzsch, 
Phut  was  the  name,  according  to  Ebers,  of  some  wandering  tribes  of  Arabia.  {Egypt 
u.  die  B.  Moses,  p.  63 )  ;  but  Sayce  thinks  it  was  the  Somali  country  in  Eastern 
Africa. 

4  Gomer  was  the  name  among  the  Hebrews  for  the  Cimmerians  of  antiquity,  the 
Cirabri  of  Roman  times,  and  the  Cymry  or  Celts  of  still  existing  communities.  Their 
original  seat,  in  the  farthest  north  known  to  the  Hebrews  or  Greeks,  is  alluded  to  in 
the  Odyssey. 

The  shores  of  deep  Oceanus  ; 
Of  the  Cimmerian  men  the  race  and  town 
Were  there,  in  mist  and  cloud  enwrapped  ;  the  sun 
Never  looks  down  upon  them  with  its  rays  ; 
Nor  when  it  marches  up  the  starry  skies, 
Nor  when  from  heaven  it  turns  again  to  earth  ; 
But  over  wretched  men  sad  night  is  spread. 

This  dismal  description  refers  to  the  country  north  of  the  Black  Sea,  to  the 
Crimea,  and  the  shores  of  the  Sea  of  Azof.  The  Black  Sea,  indeed,  bore  the  name 
of  The  Cimmerian  in  antiquity,  and  other  parts  in  these  regions  equally  mark  the 
local  predominance  of  the  Cymric  race.  The  name  Crimea  itself  is,  in  fact,  a  cor- 
ruption from  theirs.  Warlike  and  fierce  from  the  remotest  ages,  ancient  history  often 
records  their  inroads  on  more  civilized  regions  ;  as  here  in  Ezekiel,  where  they  are 
predicted  as  coming  on  a  war  of  desolation  from  the  extreme  north,  in  alliance  with 
other  nations.  The  invasions  of  Asia  Minor,  by  a  part  of  them,  driven  from  their 
homes  by  the  Scythians,  were  a  standing  alarm  for  seven  centuries  before  Christ. 
But  the  larger  and  braver  half  clung  to  the  remote  regions  they  had  always  held, 
amidst  the  shades  of  woods  which  stretched,  unbroken,  to  the  Hercynian  Forest  in 
Germany.  Latterly,  the  peninsula  of  Jutland  became  their  chief  seat,  and  was 
known  by  their  name  ;  but  they  spread  to  France.  Spain,  and  Britain,  and  still  shew 
their  splendid  vitality  in  the  Celtic  populations  of  Western  Europe,  including  our 
own  islands.  The  Welsh,  indeed,  call  themselves  Cymry,  and  Cumberland  still 
perpetuates  the  remembrance  of  their  having  long  held  it  against  the  English  tribes 
from  Germany.  In  Assyrian,  Gomer  is  Gimir  (A'.  A.  7'.  80).  This  is  very  nearly 
"Kirair,"  or  our  Kimmerians  ;  that  is,  Kymri.    Pressed  by  the  Scythians  of  the 


THE   VISION   OF   THE   FUTURE.  233 

house  of  Togarraah,'  in  the  farthest  north,  and  all  his  V)ands;  many 
people  with  thee  !  7.  Be  ready,"  prepare  thyself  (0  Gog  !)  thou,  and 
all  thy  hosts  who  gather  round  thee,  and  be  thou  their  leader. 
8.  After  many  days  thou  wilt  be  mustered;  at  the  end  of  years  thou 
wilt  come  into  a  land^  (then)  redeemed  from  the  sword,  (and  dwelt  in 
by  those,  once  exiles,  but,  now,)  gathered  out  of  many  peoples,  to  the 
mountains  of  Israel,  which  so  long  lay  waste,  (but  will  then  be  the 
home  of  thy  tribes),  brouglit  forth  out  of  the  nations,  and  dwelling  in 
security.  9.  Thou  (Gog)  shalt  rush  on,  coming  like  a  tempest,  like  a 
storm-cloud,  to  cover  the  land,  thou,  and  all  thy  hosts  of  many  peoples, 
with  thee." 

Russian  steppes,  they  threatened  to  overrun  the  Assyrian  empire,  under  a  leader 
called  Teispes,  but  were  dc^feated  by  Esarhaddon,  in  b.c.  670,  in  a  great  battle  on  the 
north-eastern  frontier  (;f  his  kingdom,  and  driven  westward  into  Asia  Minor.  There 
they  sacked  the  Greek  town  of  Sinope,  and  spread  like  locusts  over  the  fertile  plains 
of  Lydia.  Among  the  gifts  sent,  to  Nineveh  by  the  Lydian  king  Gugu  or  Gyges— a 
name  in  which  we  may  see  the  Gog  of  Ezekiel — were  two  Kimmerian  chiefs, 
whom  he  had  taken  witii  his  own  hand.  Gyges  was  afterwards  slain,  in  battle 
with  the  barbarians,  and  it  was  some  years  before  they  could  be  entirely  extir- 
pated. 

In  the  thick  darkness  of  the  remote  ages  to  which  we  are  carried  back,  when  read- 
ing Ezekiel,  it  is  ditficult  to  identify  and  localize  each  nation  mentioned.  Magog, 
for  example,  w'ould  almost  seem  to  have  been  a  vague  term,  among  the  Hebrews,  for 
the  barbarous  races  of  northern  Asia  ;  like  the  name  "  Scythians  "  among  the  Greeks. 
Jerome,  indeed,  gives  it  as  the  opinion  of  the  Jews  of  his  day,  that  it  meant  the 
'•  terrible  and  countless  Scythian  nations,"  and  while  Knobel  further  identifies  it  with 
the  Slavs  of  to-day,  Gesenius  and  others  understand  by  Rosh,  the  modern  Russians. 
Ezekiel  describes  the  four  as,  alike,  a  wild  and  terrible  race  of  mounted  men  armed 
with  the  bow  ;  a  description  which  suits  the  Scythians  who  invaded  Palestine  in  r.c. 
62.5.  But  the  name  was  also  applied  to  other  peoples,  for  Tubal  and  Meshech  appear 
not  only  as  barbarian  warriors,  riding  on  steppe  horses,  but,  in  some  branches  of 
their  stock,  at  least,  as  a  trading  people,  who  brought  vessels  of  iron  and  copi)er  to 
Tyre  for  sale.  Tubal,  in  fact,  is  simply  the  Persian  word  for  brass  or  copper,  and 
Meshech  is  thought  by  some  to  be  the  neighbouring  people,  the  C-'halybes,  who  were 
especially  known  in  antiquity  for  their  copper  mining.  It  seems  to  support  this  ex- 
planation, that  Herodotus  mentions  the  Tibarenes  and  the  Moschi  together,  as 
nations  living  south-east  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  says  that  they  worked  copper  mines, 
and  were  included  in  the  nineteenth  satrapy  of  the  kingdom  of  Darius.  The 
Assyrian  inscriptions,  moreover,  speak  of  a  people  and  land  of  Muski,  in  North  As- 
syria, which  there  is  hardly  room  to  doubt  is  the  Meshech  of  Scripture. 

1  Togarmah  is  mentioned  by  Ezekiel,  as  a  people  trading  in  horses  and  mules  at  the 
fairs  of  Tyre,  and  as  allied  with  Gomer,  or  the  Cimbri,  in  an  approaching  invasion  of 
Palestine.  In  this  connection  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  Armenians,  the  Georgians,  and 
the  races  of  the  Caucasus,  still  trace  their  descent,  through  one  Torgona,  from  Gomer, 
and  still  call  themselves  '•  The  House  of  Torgona,'  or,  as  we  have  it,  Togar- 
mah. 

2  Ezek.  xxxviii.  7-9.  ^  The  land  =  the  people  of  the  land  (Israel). 


234  THE   VISION    OF  THE   FUTURE. 

The  invasion  of  Israel  by  this  fierce  and  terrible  army  is 
now  described.  The  towns  lie  open,  in  fancied  security, 
apparently  the  prize  of  a  sudden  attack. 

"  10.  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:'  In  that  day  thoughts  will  come 
into  thy  heart,  and  thou  (Gog)  wilt  lay  wicked  plans,  saying,  11,  'I 
will  burst  into  the  open  country  of  unwalled  villages;  I  will  come 
upon  them  that  live  in  peace,  dwelling  in  (fancied)  security;  who  live 
without  walls,  or  bars,  or  gates.'  12.  (This  thou  wilt  do)  to  obtain 
plunder  and  gather  spoil,  to  lay  thine  hand  on  the  (newly  rebuilt) 
towns,  lately  in  ruins,  and  on  a  people  gathered  (by  Me,  Jehovah)  out 
of  the  nations — (a  people)  already  possessing  cattle  and  goods,  and 
inhabiting  the  centre  land  ^  of  the  earth. " 

The  traders  of  widely  different  nations  naturally  follow 
a  host  drawn  from  so  many  lands,  to  buy  up  the  plunder 
and  slaves.  On  such  a  harvest  they  counted,  and  they 
rejoice  in  proportion  as  it  becomes  evident  that  relentless 
spoil  is  the  one  object  of  the  war. 

"^13.  Sheba,  and  Dedan,  and  the  traders  of  Tarshish,  (like  beasts 
of  prey),  with  all  their  young  lions,  (greedy  for  gain  as  young  lions  for 
prey,  who  come  to  traffic  in  the  booty),  will  say  to  thee,  '  Hast  thou 
come  to  plunder?  Hast  thou  gathered  thy  host  to  collect  spoil?  to 
carry  off  silver  and  gold,  to  take  cattle  and  goods,  to  heap  up  a  great 
booty?'" 

The  remorseless  guilt  of  such  an  invasion  of  a  nation 
dwelling  in  peace,  and  offering  no  cause  for  attack,  is 
further  insisted  upon. 

**  14.  Therefore,  son  of  man,  prophesy  and  say  to  Gog,  Thus  says 
the  Lord  Jehovah :  Is  it  not  thus  that  thou  wilt  stir  thyself,  and  come 
from  thy  home  in  the  farthest  north,  in  the  day  when  My  people  Israel 
dwells  in  peace — 15.  thou  and  many  nations  with  thee,  all  on  horse ; 
a  mighty  host,  a  vast  army,  16.  and  shalt  advance  against  My  people 
Israel,  covering  the  earth  like  a  cloud  ?  At  the  end  of  days  I  will 
bring  thee  against  My  land,  that  the  heathen  may  learn  who  I  am, 

»  Ezek.  xxxviii.  10-16. 

3  Literally,  "  navel."    Note  this  conceptiou  of  the  position  of  Palestine. 


THE   VISION   OF   THE   FUTURE.  235 

when  I  shew  Myself  holy  before  their  eyes,   in  thy  punishment,   O 
Gog!" 

This  retribution  will  surely  strike  down  the  invader. 
Nature  itself  will  be  convulsed,  to  overthrow  him  utterly. 

"17.  Thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Art  thou  he  of  whom  I  have 
spoken  in  old  time  by  My  servants,'  the  prophets  of  Israel,  who  in 
those  days  prophesied,  long  years  together,  that  I  would  bring  thee 
against  them?  18.  It  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  in  the  day  when 
Gog  comes  against  the  land  of  Israel,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah,  My  wrath 
shall  rise  up  in  My  nostrils!  19.  For  in  My  indignation,  in  the  glow 
of  My  anger,  have  I  spoken  thus :  '  Verily,  in  that  day  there  will  be  a 
great  earthquake  in  the  land  of  Israel.  20.  The  fish  of  the  sea,  the 
fowls  of  the  heaven,  the  beasts  of  the  earth,  and  all  that  moves  on  the 
face  of  the  ground,  and  all  men  on  the  face  of  the  land,  will  tremble 
before  Me,  and  the  mountains  will  be  thrown  down,  and  the  cliffs  of 
the  hills  fall,  and  every  wall  sink  to  the  ground.  31,  And  I  will  call 
aloud  to  all  My  mountains,  for  the  sword  against  Gog,'  says  the  Lord 
Jehovah ;  '  every  man's  sword  will  be  against  his  fellow.  22.  And  I 
will  execute  My  judgments  against  him  with  pestilence  and  with  blood, 
and  I  will  rain  on  him,  and  on  his  hosts,  and  on  the  many  nations  with 
him,  a  storm-deluge  of  rain,  and  hailstones,  and  fire,  and  brimstone. 
23.  And  I  will  shew  My  greatness  and  My  holiness,  and  will  reveal 
Myself  in  the  eyes  of  many  nations,  that  they  may  know  that  I  am 
Jehovah.'  " 

This  final  overthrow  of  the  enemies  of  Israel,  thus  vividly 
described,  was  nevertheless  too  grand  a  theme  to  be  dis- 
missed without  another  outburst  of  prophetic  jubilation. 
The  certain  triumph  of  the  Hero  King  is  therefore  once 
more  announced  in  the  next  strophes  of  this  grand  predic- 
tion. 

"XXXIX.  1.  Son  of  man,  prophesy  respecting  Gog,  and  say,  Thus 
speaks  the  Lord  Jehovah :  Behold,  I  am  coming  to  thee,  0  Gog,  thou 
prince  of  Rosh,  Meshech,  and  Tubal  !     2.  I  will  lure  thee  out,  and 

>  The  prophecies  here  referred  to  may  not  have  been  preserved,  or  those  in  which 
the  judgments  of  God  on  the  heathen  are  foretold  may  be  meant.  Ezek.  xzzviii. 
17-23  ;  xxxix.  1-2. 


236  THE   VISION"   OF   THE   FUTURE. 

lead  thee  forth,'  and  draw  thee  on,  from  the  furthest  north,  and  bring 
thee  to  the  mountains  of  Israel  !  3.  And  (there)  I  will  smite  the 
bow  out  of  thy  left  hand,  and  cause  thy  arrows  to  fall  from  thy  right 
hand.' 

"4.  And  thou  shalt  fall  on  the  mountains  of  Israel,  thou,  and  all 
thy  hosts,  and  the  peoples  who  are  with  thee ;  I  will  give  thee  for  meat 
to  the  birds  of  prey  of  all  kinds,  and  to  the  beasts  of  the  field.  5. 
Thou  shalt  fall  in  the  open  field,  for  I  have  spoken  it,  says  the  Lord 
Jehovah.  6.  And  I  will  send  fire  on  (the  land  of)  Magog  (itself),  and 
on  them  that  dwell  in  security  on  the  sea-coasts,''*  and  they  shall  know 
that  I  am  Jehovah.  7.  Thus  will  I  make  known  My  holy  name  in  the 
midst  of  My  people  Israel,  and  not  suffer  it  to  be  any  longer  profaned, 
that  the  heathen  may  know  that  I  am  Jehovah,  the  Holy  One  in  Israel. 
8.  Behold,  it  comes — it  is  (as  good  as)  done,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah  ! 
This  is  the  day  of  which  I  have  spoken  !  "  * 

The  victory  will  be  complete  and  the  booty  immense. 
The  weapons  of  the  slain  will  supply  fuel  for  seven  years 
to  Israel,  whose  land  had  little  wood,  and  the  burial  of  the 
dead  will  take  seven  months  ;  men  being  employed  even 
longer  in  searching  for  bones  that  had  been  overlooked,  to 
remove  all  traces  of  defilement  from  the  holy  soil. 

"9.  The  men  of  the  towns  of  Israel  will  go  out  (after  the  catas- 
trophe), and  there  make  fires  of  the  arms  (cast  away  by  the  fugitives, 
or  left  by  the  dead) — the  large  shields  and  the  small,  the  bows  and  the 
arrows,  the  war  clubs/  and  the  spears;  seven  years  long  will  they  use 
them  for  fuel.  10.  They  will  not  need  to  bring  fagots  from  the  field, 
or  to  cut  down  fuel  in  the  yaars,^  for  the  wood  of  these  arms  will  serve 
them  for  firing,  and  they  will  spoil  those  that  spoiled  them,  and  plun- 
der those  that  plundered  them,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah." 

1  Draw  thee  with  leading-strings.    Ewald. 

2  Bows  and  arrows  were  the  special  weapons  of  the  Scythians.  Jer.  v.  16  ;  vi.  23. 
''Horse-bowmen'"  is  the  name  given  them  h}'  Herodotus.  Herod.,  iv.  46.  Ezek. 
zxxix.  3-10. 

*  The  distant  coasts  and  islands  of  the  ends  of  the  earth,  from  which  the  allies  of 
GrOg  came. 

*  The  great  day  of  Jehovah.  Joel  ii.  11.  Zeph.  i.  14.  Isa.  ii.  12 ;  xiii.  6.  Jer. 
xlvi.  10.    Ezek.  xiii.  5.    Amos  v.  18.     See  also  references  from  these  texts. 

"  Hitzig  thinks  the  rods  used  to  drive  on  the  horses  meant,  but  this  seems  very 
pQor.  "  Vol.  iv.  p.  374. 


THE   VISION   OF  THE   FUTURE.  237 

The  corpses  of  enemies  were  generally  left  unburied, 
or  at  most  were  interred  without  the  usual  rites,  only 
to  prevent  pestilence  or  defilement  ;  slain  foes  thus  pass- 
ing into  the  underworld  as  '*  uncircumcised/^  that  is,  dis- 
credited and  put  to  shame.'  In  this  case,  the  dead  will 
be  left  unburied,  a  prey  to  the  vultures  and  wild  beasts  ; 
but,  after  these  have  feasted  on  them,'  the  bones  will 
finally  be  collected  and  thrown  ignominiously  into  one  of 
the  deep  ravines  on  the  east  side  of  the  Dead  Sea,  out- 
side tlie  limits  of  the  Holy  Land,  of  which  the  Jordan 
will  form  the  boundary,^  and  thus  the  soil  of  Israel  will 
be  purified  from  the  defilement  of  unburied  human  re- 
mains. 

*' XXXIX.  11.  In  that  day  I  will  appoint  Gog  a  burial  place,  in 
Israel,  the  ravine  of  the  invading  hosts  of  the  wicked,*  on  the  east  of 
the  (Dead)  Sea,  and  it  will  bar  the  way  of  invaders  or  passers-by,'  and 
there  they  will  bury  Gog  and  all  his  host,  and  they  will  call  it  '  The 
ravine  of  the  host  of  Gog.'  12.  And  the  house  of  Israel  will  be 
employed  seven  months  in  burying  them,  to  cleanse  the  land.  13. 
The  whole  people  of  the  land  will  help,  and  it  will  be  a  famous  day  for 
them  when  I  glorify  Myself  thus,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah.  14.  And 
they  will  set  apart,  permanently,  chosen  men  to  travel  through  the 
land,  to  bury  any  bones  of  the  invaders  that  have  been 'overlooked, 
that  the  country  may  be  thoroughly  cleansed.  They  will  begin  their 
search  after  the  seven  months  (of  burying)  have  ended.  15.  And  if 
any  of  them,  passing  through  the  land,  see  a  human  bone,  he  will  set 
up  a  mark  beside  it,  that  the  buriers  of  the  dead  may  bury  it  in  the 
ravine  of  the  host  of  Gog.     10.  (And  as  a  memorial  of  the  event)  the 

'  Ezek.  xxviii.  10  ;  xxxii.  19,  ff.  '  Ezek,  xxxix.  17. 

5  Ezek.  xlvii.  18. 

*  Literally,  "  passers-by."  It  is  in  one  case  rendered  in  our  version  as  "  tr&nS' 
greesors"  (I'rov.  xxvi.  10),  and  the  verb  of  which  it  is  a  participle  is  often  translated 
to  "  transgress.'"  It  may  mean  either  the  "invaders,"  the  "wandering  hordes."  or 
the  "godless."  The  name  seems  to  be  given  from  the  burial  of  the  host  of  Gog  in  it. 
It  is  now  unknown  what  place  the  prophet  intended,  if,  indeed,  the  allusion  be  not 
merely  figurative.  Eichhorn  changes  the  word  Oberim  into  Abarim,  and  thinks  the 
valley  uf  that  name  is  meant.    Ezek.  xxxix.  11-16. 

'  I  have  here  combined  the  renderings  of  different  critics. 


238  THE   VISION?    OF  THE   FUTUKE. 

name  of  Hamonah — the  host — will  be  given  to  one  of  the  towns  of  the 
land.'     Thus  the  land  will  be  cleansed  !  " 

The  number  of  the  slain  will  be  so  great  that  Jehovah 
again  calls  on  the  vultures  and  wild  beasts  to  come  to  the 
ghastly  feast  on  human  flesh  prepared  for  them. 

"17.  Thou  also,  son  of  raan,'^  call  to  every  kind  of  bird  of  prey  and 
to  every  beast  of  the  field:  *  Assemble  and  come;  gather  from  all  sides 
to  My  sacrifice  (feast),  which  I  have  slain  for  you — a  great  sacrifice 
(feast)  on  the  mountains  of  Israel — to  eat  flesh  and  drink  blood.' 

"18.  '  Ye  shall  eat  the  flesh  of  heroes,  and  drink  the  blood  of  princes 
of  the  earth,  rams,  and  lambs,  and  goats,  and  fed  bullocks  of  Bashan.' 
19.  And  ye  shall  eat  fat  till  ye  be  full,  and  drink  blood  till  be  drunken, 
from  My  sacrifice  (feast)  which  I  have  slain  for  you.  20.  And  ye  shall 
have  your  fill  at  My  table,  of  horses  and  riders,*  heroes  and  men  of  war 
of  all  arms,  says  the  Lord  Jehovah.' 

*'  21.  Thus  shall  I  display  My  glory  among  the  heathen,  and  all 
their  nations  shall  see  My  judgment  that  I  have  executed,  and  My 
hand  that  I  have  laid  on  them.  22.  And  the  house  of  Israel  shall 
know  that  I,  Jehovah,  am  their  God,  from  that  day  on,  for  ever;  23. 
and  the  heathen  shall  know  that  the  house  of  Israel  went  into  captivity 
for  their  sin ;  and  that  I  hid  My  face  from  them,  and  gave  them  into 
the  hand  of  their  oppressors,  so  that  they  all  fell  by  the  sword,  because 
they  had  been  unfaithful  to  Me.  24.  I  dealt  with  them  according  to 
their  uncleanness  and  their  transgressions,  and  hid  My  face  from 
them." 

The  purpose  of  the  destruction  of  Gog,  like  that  of  the 
restoration  of  Israel,  is  declared  by  the  prophet  to  be  the 
glory  of  the  Divine  name  before  the  heathen  and  Israel. 
Meanwhile,  after  the  Keturn,  the  justice  of  God  in  the 
exile  of  His  people  will  be  acknowledged,  and  He  will  no 
more  veil  His  face  from  them,  but  will  pour  out  on  them 
His  Spirit,  the  pledge  of  His  abiding  favour. 

1  This  clause  is  obscure.  2  £zek.  xxxix.  17-24. 

'  The  heroes  and  princes  are  called  by  these  names  of  animals  used  in  sacrifice. 
Isa.  xxxiv.  6.    Jer.  ilvi.  10.    The  usage  is  frequent  in  Scripture. 
*  Keil.    Ewald.    Eichhorn. 


THE   VISION   OF   THE   FUTURE.  239 

"  25.  Therefore,  thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah : '  I  will  now  bring  back 
again  the  exiles  of  Jacob  (to  their  own  home),  and  have  pity  on  the 
whole  house  of  Israel,  and  be  jealous  for  My  holy  name.  26.  And 
they  shall  bear,  (as  penitents),  their  shame  for  all  the  transgressions 
(formerly)  committed  against  Me,  when  they  (once  more)  dwell  safely 
in  their  own  land,  none  making  them  afraid. 

**  27.  When  I  bring  them  back  again  from  the  peoples,  and  gather 
them  out  of  tlie  lands  of  their  enemies,  and  shew  Myself  holy  towards 
them  before  many  nations,  28.  they  shall  know  that  I,  Jehovah,  am, 
and  was,  their  God,  (alike)  when  I  banished  them  among  the  heathen, 
and  (afterwards)  when  1  gathered  them  again  into  their  own  land, 
leaving  none  behind  (in  captivity).  29.  And  I  will  hide  My  face  no 
more  from  them,  but  will  pour  out  My  Spirit  on  the  house  of  Israel, 
says  the  Lord  Jehovah." 

Ezekiel  had  now  painted  the  future  of  the  people  of  God, 
till  their  triumphant  establishment  in  their  own  land,  after 
the  overthrow  of  all  opposition  ;  their  hearts  changed  from 
stone  to  flesh,  and  the  Divine  Spirit  bestowed  on  them,  to 
secure  their  permanent  fidelity  to  Jehovah.  But  this 
higher  and  nobler  theocracy  demanded,  like  that  of  Moses, 
a  central  sanctuary,  a  body  of  laws,  and  a  distribution  of 
the  soil  amongst  its  population.  As  became  the  scenery  of 
visions,  those  picturing  the  restoration  and  its  attendant 
wonders  had,  throughout,  been  in  the  highest  degree 
figurative,  and  so  is  their  culmination  in  the  chapters 
that  follow.  The  overthrow  of  Gog  had  been  painted  in 
the  boldest  poetical  images  ;  all  the  powers  of  nature  con- 
spiring to  fight  for  Israel,  as  when  Joel  sees  the  sun  turned 
into  darkness  and  tlie  moon  into  blood  ;^  and  hears  Je- 
hovah shout  the  battle-cry  as  He  rushes  down  from  Zion, 
and  the  heavens  and  earth  seem  to  shake  at  the  overthrow 
of  the  heathen,  in  '^^the  great  day  of  the  Lord." 

Such  language  must  not  be  treated  as  if  it  were  prose. 

>  Ezek.  xxxix.  ;i5-29.  3  joei,  chapters  ii.  and  iii. 


240  THE   VISION"   OF   THE   FUTURE. 

The  same  principle  must  be  kept  in  view  in  the  remaining 
chapters  of  EzekieFs  visions,  which  present  in  words 
equally  figurative  the  features  of  the  new  Jewish  kingdom, 
which  he  sees,  in  imagination,  rising  from  the  wreck  of  the 
past.  He  writes  as  a  Jew  and  as  a  priest,  using  the 
imagery  of  the  little  world  in  which  he  moved  ;  the  only 
material  he  had  in  which  to  embody  his  thoughts. 

Carried  off  to  Babylon  in  opening  manhood,  from  his 
jjriestly  functions  and  daily  associations,  every  detail  of 
these  had  impressed  itself  on  the  mind  of  Ezekiel  with  all 
the  vividness  and  tender  sympathy  felt  through  life  for  the 
reminiscences  of  our  early  years.  The  Temple  in  all  its 
aspects  was  the  central  object  in  his  recollections.  Its 
buildings,  in  all  their  parts  and  uses  ;  its  worship,  in  all 
its  rites  ;  its  economy  in  the  minutest  particulars,  had  been 
familiar  to  him  from  childhood,  and  stood  out  in  his 
memory  with  unfading  clearness,  in  the  land  of  his  exile. 
The  restored  kingdom,  when  it  should  come,  could  in  his 
opinion  have  no  grander  sanctuary  than  an  idealization  of 
that  on  Mount  Zion,  where  Jehovah  had  sat  between  the 
cherubim.  It  was,  indeed,  inevitable,  as  has  been  noticed, 
that  the  materials  of  his  visions  should  be  drawn  from  the 
range  of  his  experience ;  for  the  human  mind  cannot 
create,  but  only  contrast  and  combine,  or  develop.  We 
have  seen  how,  in  his  conceptious  of  the  cherubim,  he 
avails  himself  of  tlie  mythological  colossi  around  him  in 
Babylonia  ; '  though  even  these,  if  we  think  of  it — the 
wings,  the  legs,  the  various  faces  in  strange  union — are 
only  presentations  of  natural  objects  in  new  conjunctions. 
Our  angels,  in  the  same  way.  are  only  beautiful  human 
figures  ;  our  heaven  is  only  a  succession  of  exquisite  earthly 

»  Vol.  V.  p.  401. 


THE   VISIOX   OF   THE   FUTURE.  241 

landscapes.  We  cannot,  indeed,  avoid  transferring  our 
ordinary  ideas  to  tlie  future  world.  Accustomed  to  cities, 
we  raise  a  great  city  of  God  in  our  imaginations  of  tlie 
future,  just  as  in  an  age  or  region  where  cities  were 
unknown,  we  miglit  have  pictured  heaven  as  a  garden,  like 
Eden. 

To  Ezekiel  and  his  contemporaries,  the  grand  future  in 
store  for  the  nation  could  only  be  a  glorious  renovation  of 
the  sacred  past.  The  Temple,  the  forms  of  public  service, 
the  maintenance  of  the  priests,  the  division  of  the  land 
among  the  tribes,  the  establisliment  of  the  expected  Ruler, 
and  all  else,  might  vary  in  details  from  the  practice  of 
former  times,  but  must  repeat  their  leading  characteristics. 
Yet  the  descriptions  in  which  the  prophet  sets  them  before 
us  were  only  visions,  not  literal  anticipations.  Looking 
forward  into  the  magnificent  Messianic  future,  he  paints 
it  in  such  imagery  as  alone  was  possible  to  him,  or  com- 
prehensible by  his  nation.  It  was  left  for  after  ages  to 
read  the  true  meaning  by  fuller  spiritual  light,  and  separate 
the  material  symbol  from  the  truth  it  embodied. 

That  the  pictures  of  the  restored  land  are  only  to  be 
regarded  as  the  scenery  of  prophetic  dreams  or  visions  is 
clear.  I  may  quote  a  few  proofs.  Three  thousand  cubits 
are  stated  as  the  extent  of  the  precincts  of  the  New  Temple 
on  Mount  Moriah,  but  that  hill  could  not  possibly  afford  a 
space  remotely  equal,  even  on  the  lowest  estimate  of  the 
cubit,  to  over  1,300  yards,'  or  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
square.  Kor  can  the  priestly  laws  he  announces  be  viewed 
as  intended  for  an  authoritative  code,  since  they  were  disre- 
garded after  the  return  from  Babylon.      Thus  Zerubbabel, 

•  Ezek.  xlii.  19,  20.  Coiider  makes  the  cubit  sixteen  inches  (Handbook,  p.  37). 
Other  estimates  make  it  eigliteen  or  twenty  indies.  Tlie  commontst  cubit  ia  of  22.6 
inches,  which  is  evidently  tlie  I'hcenician  cubit  of  -^-^-'i  inches  at  Carthage. 


242  THE  VISION   OF  THE   FUTURE. 

and  Joshua  the  high  priest^  followed  the  Mosaic  rules,  not 
those  of  Ezekiel,  in  consecrating  the  Temple/  disregarding 
even  the  day  named  for  the  great  solemnity  by  the  prophet 
— the  first  of  the  first  month/  for  which  they  substituted 
the  first  of  the  seventh.  ^  If,  besides,  there  are  resemblances 
between  the  Temple  of  Ezekiel  and  that  of  Solomon,  there 
are  also  striking  contrasts.  The  former  was  to  be  north  of 
Jerusalem  ; ''  the  other  rose  to  the  south  of  the  city.  In 
the  new  sanctuary  numerous  chambers  were  to  be  provided 
for  the  priests  and  Levites  while  on  duty  ;  and  the  sacred 
order  was  no  longer,  as  of  old,  to  be  scattered  in  separate 
communities  through  the  country,  but  in  a  special  district 
assigned  to  it.  The  territories  allotted  by  the  prophet  to 
the  king  comprise  almost  the  whole  centre  of  the  land, 
and  they  cannot  be  alienated  ;  to  prevent  alike  the  im- 
poverishment of  the  Crown,  or  an  excuse  for  its  encroach- 
ment on  the  lands  of  the  people.^  Equal  divisions  of  the 
country  are  assigned  to  the  different  tribes,  that  none 
might  envy  its  neighbours.®  In  contrast  to  the  exclusive- 
ness  of  the  past,  lands  are  set  apart,  between  those  of  the 
tribes,  for  aliens,  that  no  one  willing  to  work  might  suffer 
poverty.  The  prince  is  required  to  provide  the  offerings 
and  necessaries  of  the  Temple,  and  thus  secure  the  due 
performance  of  public  worship  ;  rich  gifts  to  him  being 
demanded  from  the  community,  that  this  may  not  be 
burdensome.  New  laws,  moreover,  are  prescribed  for  the 
Temple  service  and  for  the  priests.  But  in  none  of  these 
vital  points  was  there  even  an  attempt,  after  the  Return, 
to  realize  EzekieFs  ideal.  It  was  seen  to  be  only  a  fitting 
close  to  the  marvellous  visions  so  peculiar  to  him. 

»  Ezek,  xlv.  18.    Ezra  iii.  2.  «  Ezek.  xlv.  18.  '  Ezra  iii.  1-6. 

*  Ezek.  xl.  2.  •  Ezek.  slv.  8.  "  Ezek.  xMi.  14. 


THE   VISION^   OF  THE   FUTURE.  243 

If  further  proof  were  wanted  that  this  reconstitution  of 
Israel  and  its  territory  was  only  a  glowing  picture  of  the 
imagination,  it  is  supplied  by  the  features  with  which  it 
closes.  The  prophet  anticipates  the  return  of  a  golden 
age.  Jerusalem,  the  capital  of  the  new  kingdom,  is  to  be 
transformed  into  a  second  Eden.  A  river  of  living  water 
from  the  Temple  hill  will  turn  even  the  desolation  of  the 
wilderness  of  Judaea  into  beauty  and  fertility.  How  far  he 
may  have  expected  the  realization  of  his  visions  as  the  im- 
mediate result  of  the  return  from  Babylon,  is  difficult 
to  tell.  Warmed  by  patriotic  and  religious  enthusiasm, 
Ezekiel  may  have  fondly  dreamed  that  his  splendid  fancies 
would  be  realized  as  soon  as  his  people  were  re-established 
in  their  own  land. 

It  was  on  the  tenth  of  Nisan,  '^  the  beginning  of  the '' 
fourteenth  ''year,"" '  after  the  fall  of  the  Holy  City — the 
twenty-fifth  of  his  own  exile,  that  the  closing  cycle  of  his 
visions  was  vouchsafed  to  Ezekiel.  The  day  was  that  on 
which  preparations  began  for  the  Passover,  commemorat- 
ing the  deliverance  of  Israel  from  Egypt,  and  thus,  beyond 
all  others,  naturally  awoke  thoughts  of  the  great  future 
of  the  nation,  when  rescued  from  its  present  Captivity. 
Years  before,  "  as  he  sat  in  his  house  "  at  Tel  Abib,  in 
the  company  of  the  elders  of  Judah,  he  had  fallen  into  a 
trance,  in  which  he  seemed  to  be  borne  to  Jerusalem,  and 
placed  in  the  midst  of  the  Temple  courts.^  In  the  same 
way  it  appeared  now  as  if  he  had  been  carried  away  to 
Judah,  and  set  down  on  a  very  high  mountain  on  whicli 
was  a  town,  towards  the  south.  It  was  Mount  Zion,  or 
rather  Moriah,  on  which  the  Temple  of  Solomon  had  stood, 
which  is  lower  than  the  hills  round,  but  was  now  appar- 

»  Ezek.  xl.  1.  8  Ezek.  viii.  1-3. 


244  THE  yisiox  OF  the  euture, 

ently  rciised  above  tliein/  as  in  the  vision  of  Micali.  A  he- 
ing  in  form  like  a  man,  but  resplendent  with  golden  light, 
stood,  with  a  cord  of  flax  and  a  measuring  rod  in  his  hand, 
at  one  of  the  gates  of  a  great  temple,  and  proceeded  to 
measure  its  various  parts.  The  enclosing  walls  ;  the  gates  ; 
the  tables,  eight  in  number,  on  which  the  beasts  for  sacri- 
fice were  to  be  slaughtered  ;  the  chambers  for  the  sub- 
ordinate necessities  of  the  Temple  service,  for  the  singers, 
and  for  the  priests  ;  the  magnificent  porch ;  the  various 
courts  ;  the  thickness  of  the  walls,  and  their  height ;  the 
doors  and  their  posts,  were  all  in  turn  measured,  and  the 
details  written  down  minutely  by  the  prophet.  The  inner 
walls  of  the  Temple  and  its  inner  doors  were  seen  to  be 
sculptured  with  alternate  cherubim  and  palm-trees  ;  an 
altar  of  wood  stood  in  the  Holy  Place,  and  there  were 
numerous  cells  or  chambers,  in  some  of  which  the  priests 
would  eat  the  parts  of  the  ^^  holy  things''  that  fell  to  their 
share,  while  others  were  store-rooms  for  the  materials  of 
the  various  offerings,^  or  robing  chambers  for  the  officiat- 
ing ministers  of  the  altar. 

Hardly,  however,  had  the  angel  finished  all  the  measur- 
ing, before  the  glory  of  Jehovah  appeared  advancing  to- 
wards the  east  gate,  by  which  it  had  left  the  sanctuary  in 
the  former  vision,^  its  splendour  lighting  up  the  earth 
before  it,  while  a  mighty  sound,  like  that  of  many  waters, 
heralded  its  approach.  Presently  tlie  sacred  building  was 
filled  with  this  blinding  glory,  the  symbol  of  the  presence 
of  Jehovah,  and  Ezekiel  heard  a  voice  saying  to  him,  as  he 
stood  in  the  inner  or  priest's  court  : 

"  XLIII.  7.  Son  of  man!  ^  Behold,  this  is  the  place  of  My  throne, 
the  place  of  the  soles  of  My  feet,  where  I  will  dwell  in  the  midst  of  the 

i  Mic.  iv.  1.    lea.  ii.  3.  -  Ezek.  xlii.  13. 

3  Ezek.  X.  19 ;  xi.  1,  33.  *  Ezek.  xliii.  7. 


THE  VISION    OF   THE   FUTURE.  345 

children  of  Israel  for  ever!  The  house  of  Israel  will  no  more  defile  My 
holy  name,  neither  they,  nor  their  kings,  by  their  impurity, '  or  by  the 
dead  bodies  of  their  kings,  in  their  funeral  vaults, ^  (within  the  city)." 

Manasseh  and  Amon  liad  been  buried  in  the  royal  gar- 
dens,' close  to  the  southern  end  of  the  Temple;  but  such  a 
desecration  of  the  sacred  hill  would  no  longer  be  permitted 
in  the  approaching  stricter  age.  The  presence  of  a  dead 
body  within  the  holy  city  at  all,  far  more,  close  to  the 
Temple,  would,  now  that  the  Levitical  system  was  to  be 
supreme,  be  a  defilement,  which  would  make  both  priests 
and  worshippers  '^unclean."' 

"  8.  For  they  used  to  set  their  thresholds  close  to  Mine,*  and  their 
door-posts  by  My  posts,  with  only  a  wall  between  Me  and  them,  and 
thus  they  defiled  My  holy  name,  by  the  abominations  they  committed 
(close  to  My  house),  so  that  I  consumed  them  in  My  anger.  9.  But 
now  they  will  put  away  their  foul  idolatry,  and  the  dead  bodies  of 
their  kings,  far  from  Me,  and  I  will  dwell  among  them  for  ever." 

The  prophet  is  then  directed  to  tell  his  people  what  he 
has  seen — the  structure  and  details  of  the  Temple,  with  all 
the  laws  and  ordinances  to  be  communicated  to  him  re- 
specting it — if  they  shew  the  proper  spirit  of  penitence 
and  obedience.*  Instructions  for  the  consecration  of  the 
new  altar  follow,*  shewing  some  variations  from  that  of 
the  altar  of  the  Tabernacle  or  of  Solomon's  Temple,  though 
for  the  most  part  the  same.^  The  officiating  priests,  in 
this  and  all  other  cases,  however,  are  limited  to  the  de- 
scendants of  Zadok/  the  representative  of  the  elder  branch 

»  Their  idolatry.  «  Some  read,  "  after  their  death." 

>  2  Kings  xxi.  18-26.  *  Ezek.  xliii.  8-9.  ^  gzek.  xliii.  10,  11. 

«  Ezek.  xliii.  18.  '  Exod.  xxix.  37.    Lev.  viii.  15.    2  Chron.  vii.  9. 

•  Zadok  was  the  son  of  Ahitub,  of  the  line  of  Elenzar  (1  Chron.  xxiv.  3),  and  re- 
mained faiihful  to  David  during  the  rebellion  of  Ab.^aluni  (2  Sam.  xv.  24).  He  also 
anointed  Solomon  in  opposition  to  Adonijah  (1  Kings  i.  ;i2).  The  high  priest, 
AbiaLhar,  on  the  other  hand— a  dignitary  descended  from  the  line  of  Tthamar,  Eli's 
line  -supported  Adonijah  (1  Kings  i.  7).  and  was  removed  on  this  account  from  his 


346  THE  visioiq"  of  the  futuee. 

of  the  family  of  Aaron,  who  since  the  time  of  David  had 
superseded  the  line  of  Eli,  which  was  that  of  Ithamar, 
Aaron^s  yonnger  son.'  Special  rules  are  laid  down  for 
them,  some  of  which  are  striking.  In  the  old,  irregular 
times,  carelessness  and  indifference  had  marked  the  ser- 
vices of  the  slaves  attached  to  the  temple — the  descendants 
of  the  Gibeonites,  condemned  by  Joshua  to  be  hewers  of 
wood  and  drawers  of  water, '^  and  also,  it  has  been  thought, 
the  bastards  of  the  community,  and  the  ''  slaves  of  Solo- 
mon ''  ^ — apparently  captives  taken  in  war,  whom  David, 
Solomon,  and  the  dignitaries  of  the  Temple  had  used  for 
menial  duties  at  the  Sacred  House.  They  were  no  longer 
to  be  thus  employed.  Descended  from  tainted  parentage, 
they  were  not  to  be  allowed  to  enter  the  new  sanctuary.* 
Henceforward,  only  priests  and  Levites  should  minister  in 
God^s  house.  But  even  among  these,  such  as  in  the  past 
had  lent  themselves  to  idolatry,  were  no  longer  to  dis- 
charge the  higher  duties  of  their  office,  but  to  be  confined 
to  the  humblest  services.  None  but  the  descendants  of 
Zadok  should  act  as  priests  at  the  altar  and  in  the  sanc- 
tuary, because  they  had  kept  themselves  free  from  all  taint 
of  heathenism.^  The  unfaithful  priests  should  only  be 
keepers  of  the  gates,  and  servants  to  the  people  when  offer- 
ings were  presented — killing  the  victims  ;  a  task  till  now 

office  by  Solomon,  Zadok  being  put  in  his  place  ;  the  new  line  thus  established  re- 
taining the  dignity  to  the  fall  of  the  kingdom. 

1  If,  as  some  critics  allege,  the  separation  of  the  tribe  of  Levi  into  priests  and 
Levites  was  made,  not  at  Sinai,  but  after  the  Exile,  how  does  it  happen  that  EzekieL 
lays  stress  on  this  line  of  Zadok  as  the  rightful  priests  ?  Their  claim  rests  on  some- 
thing before  David's  time— what  could  it  be  but  the  appointment  by  Moses  ? 

2  Josh,  ix,  27.  3  Ezra  viii.  20.    Neh.  vii.  60.  *  Ezek.  xliv.  6-9. 

6  By  "  Levites,"  in  Ezek.  xliv.  10,  are  meant  all  descendants  of  Levi— priests  or 
"Levites."  Members  of  both  classes  had  supported  heathenism,  and  were  now  to  be 
degraded.  This  is  implied  in  the  expression  "they  shall  bear  (the  penalty  of)  their 
iniquity."  The  fidelity  of  the  descendants  of  Zadok  is  noticed  (Ezek.  xliv.  15). 
They  "  kept  the  charge  of  My  sanctuary  when,"  etc. 


THE  VISION   OF  THE  FUTURE.  247 

permitted  to  any  offerer.  As  under  the  old  law  in  Exodus/ 
the  dress  of  the  new  priests  was  to  be  exclusively  linen, 
that  they  might  not  be  polluted  by  the  heat  of  woollen 
garments.'  Their  full  official  dress,  moreover,  was  only  to 
be  worn  while  they  were  actually  on  duty,  and  was  to  be 
laid  aside  before  leaving  their  own  court  in  the  Temple, 
that  the  people  might  not  be  burdened  by  being  required 
to  be  always  Levitically  clean,  which  would  otherwise  be 
imperative,  lest  the  ^Mioly  garments  ^^  might  touch  them.^ 
Their  hair  was  neither  to  be  shaved  off  nor  let  grow  with- 
out trimming,  but  was  to  be  kept  carefully  cut."  As  of  old, 
in  the  laws  of  Leviticus,  they  were  to  drink  no  wine  when 
on  duty.*  Hitherto  only  the  high  priest  had  been  forbid- 
den to  marry  a  widow  ; "  now  it  was  prohibited  to  all 
priests,  except  in  the  case  of  a  priest's  widow.'  The  whole 
order  was  thus  to  be  specially  guarded  from  even  the  ap- 
])earance  of  laxity.  Their  general  duty  was  declared  to  be, 
teaching  the  people  the  distinction  of  holy  and  unholy, 
clean  and  unclean,®  and  to  act  as  judges  in  all  disputes,  de- 
ciding according  to  the  Law,  as  they  had  hitherto  done  in 
specified  cases. ^  At  the  great  religious  festivals,  they  were 
to  see  that  all  the  requirements  of  the  Law  were  complied 
with,  and  they  were  to  take  care  that  the  Sabbath  was  duly 
honoured.  The  old  statute  '"  respecting  their  being  defiled 
by  coming  near  a  dead  body  was  re-enacted,  but  it  was 
added,  that  even  in  cases  when  their  2)resence  beside  the 
corpse  of  a  relative  had  been  hitherto  permitted,  the  subse- 

>  Exod.  xxviii.  42.  2  Ezek.  xliv.  17, 18. 

8  See  Lev.  ^^.  11,  27.    Ezek.  xlvi.  20.  Exod.  xxix.  37  ;  xxx.  29. 

*  Ezek.  xliv.  20.    Lev.  xxi.  5,  10.  *  Ezek.  xliv.  21.    Lev.  x.  9. 
«  Lev.  xxi.  14.                                                                 '  Ezek.  xliv.  22. 

«  Lev.  X.  10.    Deut.  xxxiii.  10.    Ezek.  xxii.  26,  or  xliv,  23. 

•  Dent.  xvii.  8  ;  xix.  17  ;  xxi.  5.    Ezek.  xliv.  24. 
w  Lev.  xxi.  1-3. 


248  THE  visio:n"  of  the  future. 

quent  necessary  purification  and  suspension  from  duty  for 
seven  days  were  now  insufficient,  and  a  fortnight's  suspen- 
sion was  substituted.  So  '•' holy  ^' were  they  to  be.  For 
these  duties  they  were  to  receive  corresponding  emolu- 
ments. They  were  no  longer,  as  in  the  past,  to  have  glebes 
in  common,  though  they  were  to  have  ground  for  their 
houses,'  but  were  to  be  supported  by  a  share  of  the  sacri- 
fices and  offerings,  and  from  the  tithes  and  first-fruits, 
which  belonged  to  Jehovah,  and  were  made  over  to  the 
priests  as  His  public  servants.^  The  prohibition  to  eat 
that  which  had  died  of  itself  or  had  been  torn  by  beasts 
was  continued.^ 

Directions  follow  as  to  the  space  in  the  land  to  be  set 
apart  to  Jehovah,  after  the  division  of  tlie  country  among 
the  tribes."  A  tract  measuring,^  apparently,  about  seven 
miles  from  east  to  west,  and  three  from  nortli  to  south, 
was  to  be  marked  off  for  the  Temple,  the  priests  and  the 
Levites,  and  on  each  side  of  this  a  space  of  the  same 
breadth  for  the  prince  ;  stretching  from  one  side  of  the 
country  to  the  other.  With  this,  the  future  king  was  to 
content  himself,  refraining  from  all  oppression,  and  hon- 
ouring Jehovah  by  a  just  and  noble  reign.*  But  this  sep- 
aration of  a  sacred  and  a  royal  district  from  the  rest  of  the 
country,  was  never  attempted ;  the  whole  vision  being 
treated  as  outside  the  sphere  of  practical  politics  or  eco- 
nomics.    After  insisting  on  just  weights  and  measures,'  the 

1  Ezek.  xliv.  29-31  ;  xlv.  4. 

2  Comp.  Lev.  ii.  3  ;  vi.  16,  17,  18  ;  vii.  6,  7 ;  xxvii.  21.  Exod.  xxiii.  19  ;  xxxiv.  26. 
Deut.  xviii.  4.    Num.  xviii.  13  ;  xv.  19  ;  xviii.  19  ;  xv.  20,  21. 

3  Lev.  xxii.  8  ;  xvii.  15.  *  Ezek.  xlv. 

8  Keil  and  some  others,  think  25,000  "reeds  "  intended,  but  cubits  seem  to  be  im- 
plied (Ezek.  xlv.  1).    The  space  is  very  great  if  reeds  are  meant— 42  miles  by  17. 

«  Ezek.  xlv.  9. 

'  The  "bath"  in  Ezek.  xlv.  was  a  fluid  measure,  the  "ephah"  a  dry  measure. 
See  vol.  iv.  p.  328.    The  various  shekels  named  are  shekels  of  different  weight. 


THE   YTSTOX   OF   THE   FFTURE.  249 

prophet  prescribes  the  public  contributions  to  be  made  to 
the  prince  for  the  temple  offerings  and  sacrifices,  which 
were  to  be  primarily  under  his  care.'  Then  follow  rules  as 
to  tlie  sacrifices  for  people  and  prince,  and  for  the  festivals, 
shewing  many  curious  variations  from  the  parallel  Mosaic 
laws/  The  feast  of  Pentecost,  however,  is  wholly  omitted, 
and  so  are  the  sounding  of  the  trumpets  on  the  first,  and 
the  Day  of  Atonement  on  the  tenth,  of  the  seventh  month  ;' 
a  very  strange  fact  if  Ezekiel,  according  to  the  new  criti- 
cism, was  the  true  founder  of  Judaism  and  its  Levitical 
laws. 

The  rules  for  the  respective  shares  of  the  prince,  and  the 
people,  in  public  worship,  are  next  given.  The  east  gate 
of  the  new  temple*  was  to  be  shut  during  the  week,  but 
open  on  the  Sabbath  and  the  day  of  the  new  moon,  and  the 
prince  was  to  enter  by  this  outer  gate,  and  stand  at  the 
gate  of  the  priests'  court  within,  worshipping  Jehovah 
from  the  gate  while  the  sacrifices  were  being  offered  on  the 
altar,  and  then  leaving  by  the  way  he  entered.     The  peo- 

»  Ezek.  xlv.  13-17. 

2  Ezekiel  commands  the  offering  of  a  young  bullock  as  a  sin-offering  on  the  first  da)'  of 
the  fi^^t  month.  Moses  had  commanded  the  offering  of  a  he-goat,  in  addition  to  the  burnt 
ami  meat-offering  (Num.  xxviii.  15).  He  also  ordered  a  special  sin-offering  in  the  new 
moon  of  the  seventh  month,  but  instead  of  this,  Ezekiel  appoints  sin-offerings  for  tlif 
lirst  and  seventh  days  of  the  first  month  (Ezek.  xlv.  21,  22).  The  blood  also  is  to  be 
sprinkled  on  the  door  posts  of  the  forecourts,  instead  of  on  the  horns  of  the  altar  and 
towards  the  mercy  seat.  Moses  knows  nothing  of  such  a  universal  offering  for  the 
peoi)le  as  Ezekiel  orders  on  the  seventh  of  the  first  month  (Lev.  iv.-vi.).  Instead  of 
seven  oxen  and  seven  rams  daily  (Ezek.  xlv.  28),  Moses  appoints  two  oxen,  one  ram 
and  seven  lambs  (Num.  xxviii.  19).  The  meat-offering  (Ezek.  xlv.  24)  is  different 
from  that  prescribed  by  Moses  (Num.  xxviii.  2());  and  the  solemnities  for  the  Passover 
and  Tabernacles  in  Ezekiel  also  vary  from  tlie  ancient  directions.  At  Tabernacles, 
Moses  commands  that  the  number  of  oxen  offered,  lessen  with  each  day— thirteen, 
twelve,  eleven,  and  8o  on  (Num.  xxix.  13,  ff.).  Moses  ordered  two  rams  only  to  be 
offered  ;  Ezekiel  seven  ;  and  he  omits  altogether  the  fourteen  lambs  offered  under 
the  old  law  (Num.  xxix.  13).  Nor  has  he  said  anything  of  those  appointed  for  the 
Pas.sover  and  Tabernacles,  though  they  could  not  be  dispensed  with.  Ezra  did  not 
foUosv  Ezekiel's  laws.     (Compare  Ezra  iii.  1-6  ;  Ezek.  xlv.  18.) 

3  Ezek.  xlv.  21-^5.  *  Ezek.  xlvi. 


250  THE   VISION"   OF  THE   FUTURE. 

pie  also  were  to  worship  before  this  inner  gate  on  the  Sab- 
baths and  new  moons.'  Details  are  given  of  the  gates 
through  which  people  and  prince  are  to  enter  and  leave  on 
different  occasions ;  so  apparently  trifling  a  matter  seeming 
weighty  to  a  mind  essentially  ritualistic,  like  that  of  Eze- 
kiel.  The  evening  sacrifice  is  not  mentioned,  and  the  reg- 
ulations for  that  of  each  morning  differ  from  those  of 
Moses. '^  Even  the  cells  in  which  the  priests  were  to  boil 
and  bake  the  various  offerings  not  burnt  on  the  altar,  are 
described,  since  they  were  part  of  the  Temple  arrange- 
ments. Brief  laws  for  gifts  and  inheritances,  granted  by 
the  prince,  close  the  legislative  portion  of  the  narrative,  so 
strange  in  all  its  features. 

The  triumphant  return,  the  victory  over  all  enemies,  the 
glory  of  the  new  Temple,  the  laws  of  worship,  and  the  dig- 
nity of  the  future  king  had  now  been  recounted.  But 
could  it  be  thought  that  the  new  Jerusalem,  which  was  to 
be  so  much  grander  than  the  old,  would  be  allowed  to  stand 
in  the  midst  of  a  district  bare  and  waterless  like  the  terri- 
tory of  Judah  ?  Nature  around  must  be  in  keeping  with 
so  much  glory.  The  sanctuary  was  to  be  in  the  noblest 
sense  the  earthly  liabitation  of  Jehovah  ;  the  land,  there- 
fore, in  which  it  stood  must  be  a  second  Paradise.  Hence,  as 
rich  streams  watered  Eden,  an  abundant  flood  poured  forth 
from  under  the  threshold  of  the  Temple,  swelling  speedily 
to  a  great  river,  as  it  flowed  towards  the  east,  the  Temple 
itself  having  an  eastern  aspect.  Dividing  ere  long  into 
various  streams,^  like  the  river   of   Paradise,  these  made 

1  Moses  orders  only  two  sheep  to  be  offered  on  the  Sabbath.  Ezekiel  requires  six 
Bheep  and  a  ram  to  be  offered  (Num.  xxviii.  9  ;  Ezek.  xlvi.  4).  The  prophet  leaves 
the  "meat-offering"  to  the  ability  of  the  offerers;  Moses  leaves  nothing  to  choice 
(Num.  xxviii.  9).  In  contrast  with  the  young  ox,  six  sheep,  and  one  ram,  of  Ezek. 
xlvi.  6,  Moses  enjoins  two  oxen  and  seven  sheep  (Num.  xxviii.  11). 

2  Num.  xxviii.  4,  5.    Ezek.  xlvi.  13,  14.  '  Ezek.  xlvii.  8. 


THE   VISIOK   OP   THE   FUTURE. 


251 


even  the  great  and  terrible  wilderness  of  Judali  fruitful  and 
lovely.  Emptying  themselves  at  last  into  the  Dead  Sea, 
they  sweetened  the  bitter  waters,  and  filled  them  with  life, 
so  that  thenceforward  fishermen  could  ply  their  trade  on 
its  hitherto  lonely  shores.  Wherever  the  streams  reached, 
fertility  and  life  would  rise,  while  their  banks  on  both 
sides  would  be  lined  with  all  kinds  of  fruit  trees,  whose 
leaf  never  faded,  and  from  whose  branches  the  clusters 
would  always  be  hanging,  for  each  month  tliey  would 
yield  new  crops,  while  their  fruit  would  be  for  food,  and 
their  very  leaves  for  healing.* 

In  a  land,  the  most  barren  parts 
of  which  were  to  be  thus  delight- 
ful, the  Twelve  Tribes  would  find 
a  joyful  home  ;  half  of  them  occu- 
pying the  land  to  the  south  of  the 
Temple,  and  half  of  them  that 
towards  the  north. '^  The  thirsty 
Negeb,  or  South  Country,  as  well 
as  the  terrible  desert  of  Judah, 
would  be  turned  into  fertile  up- 
lands. 

The  bounds  of  the  Holy  Land 
in  these  blissful  times  are  next 
described.  On  the  north  it  will 
reach  from  the  Mediterranean, 
south  of  Hamath  on  the  0 rentes, 
to  the  Hauran  below  Damascus  ; 
on  the  east,  to  the  south  end  of  the  Dead  Sea,  enclosing 
Gilead  and  the  old  territory  of  the  tribes  across  the  Jor- 
dan ;  on  the  south  it   will  stretch  from  '' Tamar,"  some- 

>  Compare  Rev.  xxii.  2.  »  Ezek.  xlvii.  aud  xlviii. 


The  Assyrian  Tkee  op  Life. 


353  THE   VISION"    OF   THE   FUTURE. 

where  near  the  head  of  the  Red  Sea,  to  Kadesh  in  the 
Negeb,  and  thence,  on  to  the  Meditorreanean  ;  and  on  the 
west^  from  this  point  ^^till  a  man  come  over  against 
Hamath/'''  These  bonnds,  it  is  needless  to  say,  Israel 
never  even  approximately  possessed,  after  the  Return. 

In  this  great  territory  the  Twelve  Tribes  were  to  hold 
portions  reaching,  in  each  case,  from  east  to  west,  across 
the  whole  land  ;  seven  of  them  on  the  north  of  the  section 
in  the  centre  of  the  land,  made  over  to  the  Temple,  the 
priests,  and  the  prince  ;  the  rest  on  the  south  of  it.  All, 
moreover,  were  to  live  on  the  west  of  the  Jordan,  though 
of  old  only  nine  and  a  half  tribes  had  done  so.  The  New 
Jerusalem  was  to  be  4,500  ''  reeds,^'  or  9,000  yards — a  little 
over  five  miles — square,^  and  the  names  of  its  twelve  gates 
were  to  be  those  of  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel. '■* 

This  abstract  is  in  itself  overwhelming  proof  that  the 
whole  vision  is  only  the  imaginary  picture  of  a  condi- 
tion of  great  national  wealth  and  prosperity,  expressed  in 
Oriental  hyperbole.  No  one  thinks  of  taking  the  almost 
parallel  visions  of  St.  John  in  the  Apocalypse  as  literal 
descriptions.  We  do  not  expect  to  see  the  holy  city,  the 
New  Jerusalem,  actually  coming  clown  from  Grod,  out  of 
heaven,"  nor  that  it  will  literally  be  foursquare,  with  walls 
and  gates  like  an  ancient  town,  nor  that  the  walls  will  be 
over  200  feet  high,  or  the  city  itself  1,500  miles  square,  or 
that  its  buildings  and  spires  will  rise  1,500  miles  into  the 
air,^  and  yet  this  must  be  done,  if  the  description  is  to  be 
understood  otherwise  than  figuratively.  To  Ezekiel  and 
St.   John  alike,  the  only  aim   was  to  convey  the  highest 

»  Ezek.  xlvii.  80. 

2  Ezek.  xlviii.  30.    A  reed  =  6  cubits,  Dictionary  of  Bible,  art.  "  Reed.** 

3  Rev.  xxi.  12.  *  Rev.  xxi.  2-10. 
6  Rev.  xxi.  16. 


THE   VISION   OF  THE   FUTURE.  253 

conception  of  magnificence  as  each  imagined  it  most 
vividly  presented.  Living  in  the  age  of  Rome  and  great 
provincial  cities,  St.  John  thinks  of  a  New  Jerusalem 
such  as  he  describes.  Imbued  with  a  strongly  Jewish  and 
priestly  bias,  Ezekiel  sees  a  glorious  temple  rise  before 
him,  and  all  the  details  of  a  re-establishment  of  the  Church 
in  Palestine,  with  transcendent  splendour.  To  the  mind 
of  St.  John,  the  Temple  had  ceased  to  be  a  central  relig- 
ious thought ;  in  that  of  Ezekiel,  the  priest,  it  was  su- 
preme. In  both,  the  inspired  writer  is  left  free  to  express 
the  surpassing  glory  of  the  future,  in  the  only  way  pos- 
sible to  his  modes  of  thought,  and  the  ideas  of  liis 
age. 

Recent  critics  have  sought  to  make  Ezekiel  the  fatlior 
of  Judaism  ;  but,  as  already  shewn,  it  is  much  more 
correct  to  trace  it  to  King  Josiah.'  The  evidence  urged 
for  the  new  theory,  not  only  does  not  harmonize  with 
the  actual  facts,  but  is  distinctly  contrary  to  them.  What- 
ever seems  to  support  it  is  put  forward  prominently  ; 
whatever  tells  against  it,  is  at  once  lightly  declared  unliis- 
torical.  The  narratives  of  the  Pentateuch  are  pronounced 
to  be  legends  of  the  time  of  the  Exile  or  later  ;  tlie  gene- 
alogies of  the  Books  of  Chronicles,  mere  tricks  of  the 
priests  ;  the  historical  psalms,  only  legends  thrown  into 
poetical  form,  though  Ezekiel,  Ezra,  and  Nehemiah,  who 
were  alive  when  these  legends  are  said  to  have  risen,  treat 
them  as  actual  events  well  known  in  the  distant  liistory 
of  the  nation.  It  is  easy  to  establish  any  theory  if  one 
deal  as  he  pleases  with  what  contradicts  it.  But  to  do  so, 
on  an  arbitrary  estimate  of  what  seems  reasonable  to  a 
biassed  critic,   is  unsafe  in  the  extreme  ;  for  one  school 

>  Vol.  T.  p.  254. 


254  THE   VISION   OF   THE   FUTURE. 

rejects  that  which  another,  not  less  entitled  to  confidence, 
accepts  as  trustworthy. 

The  supposition  of  the  new  school  is,  that  Ezekiel  having 
given  an  impulse  to  Judaism  by  his  writings,  it  was  de- 
veloped during  the  exile  in  Babylon,  by  unknown  writers, 
who  invented  the  system  now  found  in  Leviticus  and  otlier 
sections  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  palmed  them  off  on  their 
contemporaries  as  having  come  down  from  the  days  of 
Moses.  But  nothing  whatever  is  known  of  any  such 
ecclesiastical  forgers  having  ever  existed  in  Babylonia. 
The  whole  theory  is  a  mere  assumption,  supported  by 
not  even  a  tittle  of  historical  evidence.  Nor  is  this  the 
worst.  According  to  the  latest  advanced  critics,  the  invent- 
ors of  the  ''  Priestly  Torah,"  that  is,  of  the  Levitical  legis- 
lation, almost  as  a  whole,  commended  it  to  public  respect, 
and  introduced  it  to  the  worship  of  God  and  the  practice 
of  daily  life,  as  of  Divine  origin,  while  they  knew  it  was  not. 
They  invented  the  whole  story  of  the  law-giving  on  Mount 
Sinai,  the  construction  of  the  Tabernacle,  the  separation 
of  the  tribe  of  Levi  to  the  priesthood,  of  the  conquest  of 
Eastern  Palestine,  and  much  else,  to  induce  the  people  to 
accept  as  laws  given  directly  from  heaven,  more  than  a 
thousand  years  before,  what  they  had  themselves  secretly 
concocted  in  Babylon  !  One  of  the  latest  historians '  of 
Israel,  indeed,  carries  this  so  far,  as  to  pronounce  the 
whole  narrative  of  the  stay  in  Egypt,  the  Exodus,  the  wil- 
derness sojourn,  the  existence  of  the  Tabernacle,  the 
conquest  of  Eastern  Palestine,  the  record  of  Joshua,  that 
of  the  Judges,  and  even  that  of  Saul,  mere  worthless 
legends  of  late  date,  which  he  passes  over  with  contemptu- 
ous silence  ! 

I  Stade,  GeschicMe  des  Volkes  Israel 


THE    VISION    OF   THE    FUTURE.  255 

This  *'  Priestly  Torah/'  invented  in  Babylon,  was 
brought,  we  are  told,  to  Palestine,  on  the  return  from 
Captivity,  and  having  been  read  aloud  to  the  people,  was 
accepted  by  them,  though  hitherto  entirely  unknown,  as 
the  ancient  religious  law  of  the  nation,  observed  by  their 
fathers.  But,  su2:)posing  so  gigantic  an  imposition  on  a 
bigoted  and  ultra-conservative  race  in  any  case  possible,  we 
should  expect  that  it  would  be  specially  prominent  in 
books  like  those  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  who  were  most 
exacting  in  ritual,  and  that  allusions  to  it  would  abound  in 
their  j^ages.  On  the  contrary,  however,  we  nowhere  find 
it  mentioned.  The  covenant  to  which  the  returned  exiles 
bound  themselves  has  no  connection,  strange  to  say,  with 
ceremonial  law,  but  pledges  them,  as  its  great  points,  to 
abstain  from  marriage  with  others  than  their  own  race, 
and  to  keejo  the  Sabbath,'  duties  enforced  by  laws  which, 
confessedly,  do  not  belong  to  the  so-called  ^^  Priestly 
Torah  '^  at  all,  but  to  the  earliest  days  of  Jewish  history. 

i  £xod.  xxziv. 


CHAPTEE  XIIL 

AT    BABYLON. 

Among  the  captives  led  off  from  Judaea,  by  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, in  B.C.  GOo,  immediately  after  his  great  victory 
over  the  Egyptians  at  Oarchemish,  were  a  number  of 
youths  of  the  best  Jewish  families,  transferred  to  Babylon 
for  service  at  court ;  it  may  be,  in  compliment  to  members 
of  the  Chaldean  party  in  Jerusalem,  or,  possibly,  as  host- 
ages for  the  good  behaviour  of  the  city.  Among  these 
was  the  future  propliet  Daniel,^  of  unknown  but  evidently 
illustrious  origin.  He  first  comes  before  us  while  still  in 
his  opening  prime,  but  even  then  is  marked  not  only  by  his 
physical  beauty  and  intelligence,  but  even  more  strikingly 
by  his  strength  of  character'^  and  religious  fervour  and 
sincerity.     Exile  in  his  case,^  and  in  that  of  others  of  his 

1  "  One  who  judges  in  the  name  of  God."  2  Dan.  i.  6. 

9  The  year  is  given  in  Dan.  i.  1,  as  the  third  of  Jehoiakim.  But  in  Jer.  xxv.  1, 
r.lic  fourth  year  of  Jehoiakim  is  stated  to  have  been  the  first  of  Nebuchadnezzar, 
and  he  is  said  to  have  defeated  Pharaoh  Necho  at  Carchemish  in  that  year  (Jer.  xlvi. 
2).  Delitzsch  explains  the  apparent  contradiction  by  referring  to  2  Kings  xxiv.  1, 
from  which  he  understands  that  the  third  year  of  Jehoiakim  means  the  third  year  of 
his  vassalage  to  Nebuchadnezzar  (Herzog,  2te  Auf.,  art.  "  Daniel ").  Dan.  i.  1  is  held  by 
ZOckler  and  Delitzsch  as  noting  the  time  when  the  campaign  began,  which  ended, 
next  year,  in  the  submission  of  Jerusalem.  In  the  third  year  the  Chaldsean  array  was 
set  in  motion;  in  the  fourth,  the  battle  of  Carchemish  opened  the  way  to  Palestine, 
and  then  followed  the  march  to  it,  all  during  the  reign  of  Nabopolassar,  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's father.  Herzog,  Ite  Auf.,  art.  "  Daniel."  Zockler's  Z^ani*^,  p.  28.  Keil's 
Ewleituno,  p.  410. 

The  reckoning  of  the  years  of  a  reign,  it  should  be  remembered,  is  often  different. 
Queen  Victoria  ascended  the  throne  in  June,  1837,  but  was  not  crowned  till  June, 
1838.  Her  reign  might  be  counted  from  either  date,  if  custom  allowed,  and  it  may 
have  been  thus  in  Palestine.    Further,  1838  might  be  called  either  the  first  or  second 


AT   BABYLON.  257 

cia&s,  was^  in  reality,  the  highest  good  fortune,  giving  them 
an  opening  in  life  at  the  court  of  the  greatest  monarch  of 
the  age,  and  under  his  special  favour. 

The  kings  of  Assyria  and  Babylon,  in  order  the  more 
easily  to  govern  their  subjects  of  different  races  and  lan- 
guages, were  accustomed  to  select  from  the  captives  or  host- 
ages of  each  nation,  3"oung  men  of  noble  birth,*  and  bring 
them  up  in  the  royal  palace,  where  they  were  put  in  charge 
of  the  chief  of  the  eunuchs,^  and  received  the  highest  edu- 
cation the  age  afforded.  Thus  in  the  inscrij)tions  of  Sen- 
nacherib, we  accidentally  learn  that  he  had  such  a  school 
in  his  palace  at  Nineveh,  for  the  children  of  nobles  of  his 
foreign  provinces.  '^  Belibus,"  he  tells  us,  ^'  of  the  race  of 
Babylon,  who  had  been  brought  up  from  early  cliildhood 
in  my  palace,  was  set  by  me  over  the  kingdom  of  the 
Sumirs  and  Accadians."  '  This  custom  of  the  kings  of 
Assyria  and  Babylon,  thus  illustrated  by  the  inscriptions  of 
Nineveh,  till  these  records  came  to  light,  was  known  to  us 
only  from  the  Book  of  Daniel,  the  exact  local  colouring  of 
which  in  this  instance,  as  in  so  many  others,  is  so  singularly 
vindicated  by  the  testimony  of  contemporary  documents. 

year  of  her  reign,  according  to  the  months  intended.  Up  to  June  it  was  the  first 
year  ;  after  that  it  was  the  second.  In  the  Speaker's  Commentary  the  dates  are  har- 
monized as  follows  :  Expedition  against  Pharaoh  Necho,  twentieth  year  of  Nabopo 
lassar  =  second  of  Jehoiakim.  Battle  of  Carchcmish,  twenty-first  of  Nabopolassar, 
third  of  Jehoiakim.  Pursuit  of  Necho,  first  year  of  Nebuchadnezzar  =  fourth  year 
of  Jehoiakim. 

'  "Princes"  (Dan.  1.  3).  The  word  tlius  translated  is  not  Hebrew,  but  from  the 
Sanscrit,  and  shews  a  time  and  place  where  there  was  contact  between  the  Semitic 
and  Aryan  races,  as  in  the  case  of  Babylon  with  Media  and  Persia.  It  occurs  here, 
and  twice  in  Esther. 

2  Ashpcnaz  is  equivalent  to  Assu-ibni-Tlr  ("The  Lady  Istar,  the  goddess,  formed 
him  in  the  womb  ").  Such  a  name  speaks  for  itself  as  only  possible  while  Istar  waa 
yet  honoured— that  is,  while  Babylon  still  flourished.  Lenormant's  La  BivinatUni, 
p.  123. 

3  Cylinder  of  Bellino,  i.  13.  Smith's  Senna^heiib,  p.  27.  Smith's' Zfwtory  qf 
Assyria,  p.  111.    Records  of  the  Past,  vol.  i.  p.  23. 

VOL.  vi.-ir 


258 


AT  BABYLON. 


A  similar  practice  in  Turkey,  while  still  a  conquering 
power,  lias  been  noticed  by  various  travellers.  The  pages 
of  the  seraglio,  the  officers  of  court,  and  most  of  the  public 
functionaries  and  local  governors,  were  drawn  from  a  body 
of  Christian  youths  taken  captive  in  war,  or  bought  as 
slaves.  The  finest  and  cleverest  were  sent  to  the  palace, 
and  put  in  charge  of  the  chief  of  the  white  eunuchs, 
though  they  themselves  were  not  mutilated.     Schools  were 

provided,  at 
which  they  re- 
ceived the  best 
education  the 
country  could 
give,  includ- 
ing a  perfect 
knowledge  of 
Turkish  in  its 
greatest  pur- 
ity. Their 
food  was  care- 
fully  pre- 
scribed,   and 

they  wore  a  special  dress  as  cadets  in  the  royal  service. 
Guardians  watched  them  night  and  day,  and  reported  on 
their  conduct  and  attainments,  by  which  their  future  ad- 
vancement was  determined.*  A  curious  proof  of  similar 
arrangements  at  Nineveh  and  Babylon  has  come  to  light  in 
the  examination  of  the  clay  tablets  brought  in  vast  num- 
bers from  the  library  of  Assurbanipal  of  Nineveh.  They 
are  found  to  have  been  mainly  intended  for  the  use  of  the 


Cuneiform  Inscription.— Warka, 


i  Habesci's  Ottoman  Einpire,  and  Tavernier's  Relation,  etc.,  quoted  in  Pict.  Bible, 
vol.iii.  p.  213. 


AT  BABYLON.  259 

masters  and  pupils  of  the  palace  school,  where  the  youth  of 
both  sexes  were  trained  for  the  royal  service.  A  large  j^ro- 
portion  of  them  consists  of  syllaharies,  grammars,  diction- 
aries, histories,  geographies,  and  scientific  manuals.  Even 
the  exercises  and  tasks  of  the  scholars  have  in  some  cases 
been  recovered ;  one  tablet  among  others  containing  the 
lesson  for  a  young  princess  in  Assyrian  reading  and  spell- 
ing.* It  was  indeed  no  light  matter  to  become  an  adept 
even  in  the  living  language  of  Assyria  or  Babylon,  with  its 
multitudinous  combinations  of  arrow-headed  or  wedge- 
shaped  characters,  different  pronunciations  of  which  gave 
wholly  different  meanings  to  the  same  word.  But  another 
language,  the  Accadian,  which  had  long  ceased  to  be 
spoken,  needed  to  be  thoroughly  mastered,  to  acquire  a 
liberal  education,  all  the  venerable  treatises  on  the  gods, 
on  science,  and  on  magic,  being  preserved  in  it  alone.  It 
was,  in  fact,  the  ^Manguage  of  the  Chaldaeans,"' '^  and 
Daniel,  as  a  student,  had  specially  to  ap2:)ly  himself  to  it  ; 
the  "  Chaldean  language"  of  Bible  times,'  used  in  parts  of 
the  Book  of  Daniel  itself,*  being  then  known  as  Aramean. 
It  is  a  curious  evidence  of  the  wide-spread  education  of  the 
Babylonian  population,  that,  as  nearly  all  could  read  and 
write,  the  forms  of  handwriting  on  the  tablets  and  cylin- 
ders are  almost  as  numerous  as  in  the  modern  world. 

The  illustrations  of  ^'  Daniel "  from  the  monuments  and 
tablets,  are  numerous.  Thus,  the  change  of  name  given  to 
the  young  prophet  and  his  companions  on  entering  the 
palace  school,  was  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of  the 

'  It  is  in  the  British  Museum.  "^  Dan.  i.  4,  17. 

'  The  use  of  the  word  "  Chaldoeans,"  as  equivalent  to  "  wise  men,"  is  unknown  in 
the  Assyrian  or  Babylonian  inscriptions  and  records.  It  rose  only  after  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Babylonian  empire.    Schrader,  Keilinschriften,  2te  Auf.,  1882,  p.  429. 

*  Dan.  ii.  4,  12. 


260 


AT  BABYLON. 


age.  Psammeticlius,  tlie  famous  king  of  Egypt,  when 
living  in  Nineveh,  had  an  Assyrian  name  given  him  by 
Assurbanipal/  Similarly,  that  of  Daniel  was  changed  to 
Balatsu-usur  or  Belteshazzar,  ''  (Bel)  protect  his  life,"  and 
that  of  one  of  his  companions  from  Azariah  to  Abed-nebo 
— '^^the  servant  of  (the  god)  Nebo,'^ "  which  frequently  oc- 
curs in  Assyrian  documents/  Shadrach  and  Meshach,  his 
other  associates,  have  had  their  names  so  changed  in  the 
Hebrew  transcription  as  to  obscure  their  original  form,  but 
we  have  the  authority  of  so  competent  a  scholar  as  Lenor- 

mant   for   saying  that 
''  all  these  names,  when 
not  altered  beyond  re- 
covery by  the  eri-ors  of 
copyists,    are    strictly 
Babylonian,  and  could 
not  have  been  invent- 
ed in  Palestine  in  the 
second  century  before 
Christ,"    the    date    to 
which  the  composition 
of  the  Book  of  Daniel 
is  sometimes  referred. 
Three  years  spent  in  the  training  school  of  the  palace 
sufficed   to   advance    Daniel   to   high    proficiency   in   the 
"  wisdom  "  of  the  day.     In  one  point,  however,  he  steadily 
resisted   the   influences   around   him.      It   was   taken   for 

'  Lenormant,  Lettres  Assyriologiques,  vol.  i.  p.  56.  Oppert,  Memoiy^es  de  VAca- 
demie  des  Inscriptions,  etc.,  etc.  8  partie,  vol.  i.  p.  595.  The  name  was  Nabu-Sezi^ 
banni.  '•^  ^. /.,  2te  Auf.  (1882),  p.  430.    Abedneg/^o  should  be  Abednefeo. 

3  La  Divination,  p.  182.  The  dignitary  called  "  chief  of  the  eunuchs,"  had  under 
him  an  otlicial  called  "  the  Melzar  "  (Dan.  i.  11),  and  both  are  frequently  mentioned 
in  the  Assyrian  tablets.  "  The  Melzar  "  seems  to  have  been  the  chief  butier.  Lenor- 
aiant,  pp.  196-7. 


Ancient  Hieuatic,  uii  Sackeu  Wuitini; 
Warka. 


AT   BABYLON.  261 

granted  that  he  and  his  companions  would  adopt  the 
religion  of  Babylon  ;  but  nothing  could  induce  him  to 
abandon  the  faith  of  liis  fathers,  even  in  a  matter  so  sub- 
ordinate as  its  prescriptions  respecting  food.  As  a  high 
honour,  the  palace-school  cadets  were  supplied  from  the 
royal  table;  but  Daniel  and  his  companions  shrank  from 
eating  or  drinking  anything  ^"^  unclean  "  in  itself  or  from 
having  been  consecrated  to  idols.  This  made  it  impossible 
for  them  to  touch  anything  brought  from  the  table  of  the 
king,  all  the  food  or  drink  on  which  was  first  dedicated  to 
the  gods,  by  the  offering  of  a  part  of  it  on  their  altars.' 
At  the  risk  of  life,  therefore,  they  would  not  taste  such 
viands.  Men,  even  in  their  youth  so  bravely  faithful  to 
t^ieir  consciences,  could  not  fail  one  day  to  rouse  the  nation 
to  a  new  religious  life,  by  the  quickening  power  of  their 
example. 

The  city  in  which  Daniel  thus  found  himself,  was  the 
greatest  in  the  ancient  world.  Herodotus,  who  visited  it 
about  B.C.  450,  within  a  century  after  the  departure  of  the 
Hebrews,  while  its  walls  and  buildings  were  still  perfect, 
describes  it  as  forming  a  square  of  nearly  fourteen  miles  on 
each  side.^  Others  ^  give  a  different  measurement,  but  the 
smallest  leaves  a  space  of  over  ten  miles  square  within  tlie 
walls,  which  is  four  times  more  than  that  covered  by  intra- 
mural Paris,  and  fully  twice  as  great  as  the  size  of  London 
within  the  bills  of  mortality. 

The  greatness  of  Babylon  was  largely  due  to  its  position. 
Built  on  a  broad  and  level  shelf  of  tertiary  rock,  which 

J  Keil,  Daniei,  p.  64.  The  laws  of  Levitical  purity  were  thus  known  before  the 
Exile,  not  invented  after  it,  as  the  new  critics  aftirm. 

2  Herod.,  i.  178  ;  120  stadia  on  each  side. 

3  Strabo,  xvi.  1,  §  5.  Q,.  Curtius,  Vit.  Alex.  Mag.,  v.  1.  Clitarchus,  in  Diod.  Sic.^ 
xi.  7,  §  3.  Ebers  gives  the  circuit  of  Babylon  as  more  than  45  miles,  ^g.  Konigs- 
tochter^  vol.  ii.  p.  16. 


262  AT  BABYLON. 

spread  out  from  under  the  rich  soil  of  the  wide  plains,  the 
last  trace  of  the  northern  hill  system,  it  enjoyed  a  healthy 
and  secure  site,  even  amidst  the  periodical  inundations 
around.  Defended  on  the  south  by  the  broad  waters  of 
the  united  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  which  ere  long  widened 
into  those  of  the  Persian  Grulf,  then  reaching  much  farther 
north  than  at  present^  the  wide  stretches  of  the  desert  pro- 
tected it  on  all  other  sides.  High  prosperity,  also,  was 
secured  by  its  position,  for  it  stood  on  the  great  line  of  trade 
between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  East,  at  the  point  where 
the  Euphrates  contracts,  from  a  broad  expanse,  to  the  full 
current  of  a  deep  and  magnificent  stream,  bearing  down 
to  the  wharves  of  the  great  city  the  wealth  of  the  north,  as 
the  waters  on  the  south  bore  from  the  ocean  that  of  India 
and  Africa.  There  was  no  stone  for  its  mansions  and 
houses,  but  the  deep  clay  of  the  plains  was  easily  made 
into  sun-dried  bricks,  and  the  bitumen  of  the  north, 
brought  down  the  river,  supplied  cement. 

The  walls  of  this  gigantic  hive  of  men  were  in  keeping 
with  the  vast  limits  they  enclosed.  Rising  out  of  great 
moats  on  every  side,  they  towered,  in  the  opinion  of  He- 
rodotus and  Ctesias,  three  hundred  feet  into  the  air,'  while 
their  breadth  was  such  that  chariots  Avith  four  horses  could 
pass  each  other  on  the  wide  top,'^  which  was  said  to  have 
been  fully  eighty  feet  across  ;  a  breadth,  which,  great  as  it 
is,  does  not  seem  improbable,  as  the  thickness  of  the  walls 
at  Khorsabad  has  been  found  to  be  no  less  than  seventy- 
eight  feet  ;  even  this,  swelling  out  to  ninety,  where  there 
had  been  bastions.     Strabo,  in  the  century  before  Christ, 

>  Herod.,  i.  178.  He  says  they  were  200  cubits  high  and  50  broad.  Herodotus  lived 
B.C.  484-408.  Ctesias  was  born  about  the  time  when  Herodotus  was  approaching 
his  end. 

2  Duncker,  Gesch.  des  Alterth.,  i.  856. 


AT   BABYLO]^.  363 

when  the  walls  of  Babylon  luid  been  long  left  to  moulder 
away,  tells  us  they  were,  still,  fifty  cubits  high,  and  thirty- 
two  feet  broad.  Duncker,  however,  regards  the  estimate 
of  Herodotus  as  exaggerated,  but  thinks  tliat,  since  the 
^[edian  wall,  the  first  line  of  defence  of  the  land,  was 
a  hundred  feet  high,  and  twenty  feet  broad,  and  as,  even 
in  Xenophon's  day,  the  wall  of  Nineveh  was,  still,  a  hun- 
dred feet  high,  we  may,  with  some  confidence,  accept 
Pliny's  statement,  that  the  walls  of  Babylon  were  two  hun- 
dred feet  high,  from  the  fosses  round  them,  and  had  a 
proportionate  thickness  of  from  thirty  to  forty  feet.  This 
breadth,  indeed,  is  only  what  might  be  expected,  when  we 
remember  that  three  chariots  could  pass  each  other,  on  the 
top  of  the  wall  of  Nineveh,  though,  of  course,  none  may 
actually  have  run  there.  It  is,  however,  possible,  that 
slanting  ascents,  such  as  we  see  inside  the  mosque  of  St. 
Sophia,  at  Constantinople,  reaching  upwards  to  the  gal- 
leries, or,  as  in  the  great  Campanile,  at  Venice,  may  have 
made  it  practicable  to  drive  chariots  to  the  top,  where  a 
strong  parapet  protected  the  sides.  Ebers,  strange  to  say, 
fancies  the  walls  were  only  seventy  feet  high,  when  per- 
fect ;  so  widely  do  scholars  differ,  in  apparently  the  sim- 
plest points.'  Bat  the  wonderful  magnitude  of  the  mural 
defences  of  Babylon  can  only  be  realized,  when  we  remem- 
ber that  there  were  two  walls,  an  outer  and  an  inner,  and 
that  the  outer,  or  great  wall,  enclosed  a  space  as  great  as 
the  Department  of  the  Seine — a  hundred  and  ninety-nine 
square  miles  ;  while  even  the  inner  wall  guarded  a  hundred 
and  seventeen  square  miles,  a  space  much  larger  than  the 
whole  size  of  London.'^ 

'  The  authorities  for  the  height  of  tlie  walls  are  :  Herod.,  i.  178.    Diod.  Sic,  ii.  7, 
§  3.    Pliii..  //.  .v.,  vi.  20.    Stnibo,  xvi.  1,  §  5.    Jer.  li.  58.  Ebers,  ^g.  Konigstochter. 
2  Oppert,  Expedit.  en  Mtsop.,  vol.  i.  pp.  2-.J0,  flf. 


264  AT   BABYLON". 

Sucli  a  wondrous  girdle  of  defence  from  the  tribes  of 
the  desert  or  more  civilized  enemies,  must  have  involved 
an  almost  inconceivable  amount  of  labour.  Constructed  of 
burnt  bricks,  alternating  with  layers  of  reeds  to  bind  them 
together,  and  cemented  with  bitumen,  the  walls  contained, 
without  including  250  towers  which  rose  above  them,  not 
less  than  5,560,000,000  square  feet,  and  were  built  up  of 
at  least  three  times  that  number  of  the  largest  bricks 
used  by  the  Babylonians.^  A  hundred  gates  with  their 
great  posts,  leaves,  and  sills,  of  brass,  and  their  bars  of 
iron,  permitted  entrance  to  the  city.^  There  were  also 
inner  walls  on  each  side  of  the  river,  which  flowed  through 
the  centre  of  the  city,  with  huge  gates  at  the  end  of  each 
of  the  broad  and  wide  streets  which  ran  towards  the 
stream,  alongside  which  handsome  quays  stretched  out  for 
trade  and  embellishment.  Ferry-boats  plied  across  the 
river  from  each  gate  ;  and  a  drawbridge,  raised  at  night, 
offered  further  accommodation  to  the  citizens.  Inside  this 
space  the  ordinary  houses  of  the  inhabitants  rose,  in  many 
cases,  three  or  four  ^  stories  high  ;  but  they  sank  into  in- 
significance when  compared  with  the  great  palace-quarter 
of  the  kings,  which  itself  was  a  city  seven  miles  round. 
Three  or  four  vast  buildings  stood  within  its  enclosure," 
the  wall  of  which,  Herodotus  tells  us,  was  ^^  very  little  in- 
ferior in  strength  "  to  that  of  the  city  itself.^  The  size  of 
the  royal  dwellings  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  the 
mound  from  which  one  of  them  towered  up  covers  thirty- 
seven  acres,''  while  another,   still  known  as  the  Kasr,  or 

1  Canon  Rawlinson  computes  that  18,765,000,000  of  the  laro^est  bricks  would  be 
needed.  Expositor,  1883,  p.  349.  Ebers  says  that  these  walls  were  a  f^reater  wf)nder 
than  even  the  Pyramids,     ^^g.  Koidgstochter,  vol.  ii.  p.  16. 

•■i  See  Isa.  xlv.  2.  3  Herod.,  i.  180. 

4  Oppert  says  four.  ^  Herod.,  i.  181. 

6  Oppert,  Expedition  scientifique,  vol.  i.  p.  157. 


AT  BABYLON. 


265 


g66  AT  BABYLOK. 

"  Palace/'  is  800  yards  long  by  600  yards  broad/  Near  the 
centre  of  this  gigantic  platform,  which,  though  seventy 
feet  high,  was  only  the  artificial  terrace  on  which  the  vast 
fabric  stood,  a  fragment  of  the  palace  itself  still  rises. 
Walls,  piers,  and  buttresses  of  brick  masonry,  wonderfully 
preserved,  and  in  some  j^arts  adorned  with  pilasters,  still 
help  to  bring  before  us  perhaps  the  very  building  in  which 
Daniel  spent  his  best  years  ;  but  the  ruins  are  too  frag- 
mentary to  yield  any  clue  to  the  plan  of  the  structure  as 
a  whole.  It  doubtless,  however,  contained  a  labyrinth  of 
courts,  great  halls,  galleries,  and  smaller  chambers,  gor- 
geous with  colours,  or  lined  with  sculptures  or  paintings, 
of  scenes  of  war  and  of  the  chase.''  Even  the  outside  walls, 
indeed,  were  resplendent  with  the  brightest  colours,  count- 
less fragments  of  their  bricks  still  remaining  covered  with 
a  thick  enamel,  over  brilliant  blue,  red,  yellow,  and  black.  ^ 
The  palace  gardens  were  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
world.  Nebuchadnezzar  had  married  a  Median  princess, 
and  thinking  that  she  sighed  for  her  native  mountains 
when  looking  out  on  the  dull  level  of  the  Babylonian 
plains,  he  resolved  to  beguile  her  of  her  longing  for 
home,  and  at  the  same  time  shew  how  much  he  loved 
her,  by  commanding  that  wooded  hills  should  be  created 
in  the  "  paradise "  of  her  palace.  Arch  upon  arch  of 
masonry  forthwith  rose  like  a  pyramid,  to  the  height  of 
400  feet,  over  a  square  of  equal  size  each  way,  as  the 
framework  of  a  vast  accumulation  of  artificial  mounds 
and  hills  of  earth,  on  which  waved  forest  trees  of  huge 
diameter,  transplanted  in  their  full  glory,  and  thickets  of 
flowering  shrubs,  interspersed  with  cool  chambers,  royally 

1  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  880  yards  are  half  a  Jiiile. 

9  Ezek.  xxxii.  14, 15.i  '  Layard,  Nvieveh  and  Babylon^  p.  SW. 


AT   BABYLON.  267 

furnished,  at  successive  heights.  To  make  the  charm 
complete,  flowing  streams  glided  along  each  terrace  and 
sparkled  down  every  slope,  amongst  the  groves  and  woods  ; 
the  water  for  them  being  raised  to  the  summits  by  hy- 
draulic machinery.'  The  site  of  this  miracle  of  skill  and 
inventive  genius  has  been  supposed,  by  Oppert,  to  have 
been  a  mound  known  as  Amran  ;  now,  an  irregular  mass, 
542  yards — that  is,  nearly  the  third  of  a  mile,  long — on  one 
side ;  330,  on  the  other,  and  433  broad.  Ebers,  however, 
gives  the  honour  to  a  vast  mound,  known  as  the  Kasr,  or 
Palace,  which  rises  in  an  amazing  heap  of  accumulated 
earth,  stretching  2,400  feet,  along  the  bank  of  the  Eu- 
phrates, and  reaching  back  from  it,  to  the  vast  breadth 
of  1,800  feet.  Here,  Ebers  thinks,  stood  both  the  palace 
and  the  gardens,  and  there  is,  still,  at  least  an  imaginary 
link  between  them,  for,  on  the  north  side  of  this  artificial 
hill,  a  lonely  tamarisk  still  looks  down  on  the  river,  a  very 
old  and  thick-bodied  tree,  which  the  Arabs  say  is  the  only 
tree  that  remains  of  the  hanging  gardens  of  Semiramis.' 
Such  an  amazing  creation  must  have  led  to  many  less 
ambitious  copies,  by  some  of  the  immensely  rich  nobles  of 
Babylonia,  and  to  this,  perhaps,  we  owe  the  discovery, 
by  Layard,  of  a  bas-relief  shewing  a  garden  raised  on  great 
pillars,  which  may,  in  a  feeble  way,  give  a  conception  of 
part,  at  least,  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  wondrous  love-gift  to 
his  well-beloved.  But,  however  built,  or  on  what  particular 
spot,  the  great  garden  of  Nebuchadnezzar  was  certainly 
inside  the  pleasure  grounds  of  his  palace,  nor  is  it  without 
significance,  in  an  attempt  to  realize  the  possibility  of  such 
an  amazing  structure,  to  find  the  king  himself  telling  us, 

>  For  notices  of  these  gardens,  see  Ebers,  ^g.  Konigstochter,  vol.  i.  p.  121 ;  vol.  li, 
p.  250. 
•  Dnncker,  Gesch.  U.  Alterthums,  i.  572.    Nineveh  and  Babylon,  233. 


268  AT  BABYLON. 

in  one  of  the  inscriptions,  that  the  wall  enclosing  the  palace 
and  its  parks  was  built  in  fifteen  days.  With  such  com- 
mand of  forced  labour,  anything  was  possible. 

But  the  most  amazing  of  all  the  wouders  of  Babylon 
was  the  great  temple  of  Merodach  and  the  Sun,  the  two 
being,  at  first,  regarded  as  the  same  god.  No  religious 
structure,  of  ancient  or  modern  times,  has  ever  rivalled 
the  grandeur  of  this  primeval  sanctuary,  which  rose  like 
a  mountain  from  the  level  of  the  country  round.  In  its 
treasuries  the  spoils  of  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  and  much 
besides,  had  been  laid  up  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  as  an  offer- 
ing of  gratitude  to  his  chief  god,  for  victory  over  his 
enemies.  He  little  thought  that  he  was  unconsciously 
preserving  the  sacred  vessels  of  Israel  in  a  safe  and  inviola- 
ble stronghold,  till  the  day  when  Jehovah  would  bring 
about  their  restoration  to  His  people. 

This  vast  structure  seems  to  have  been  a  square  pyramid 
of  over  six  hundred  feet  high,  and  as  long  on  each  side,  at 
its  base — or  two  hundred  feet  higher  than  the  cross  on  St. 
Paul's,  and  a  hundred  feet  longer,  each  way,  than  the 
length  of  St.  Paul's,  east  and  west.  Its  extreme  age  is 
proved  by  its  secret  name,  Saggatu,  or  E  Saggil,  ''the  high 
temple,''  or  '^  the  house  of  the  raising  of  the  head " — an 
old  Akkadian  word.  An  inscription  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
shews  us  that  he  restored  it  six  hundred  years  before 
Christ,  but  it  had  already  been  repaired  by  previous  kings, 
as  a  venerable  relic  of  antiquity,  for  it  dated  from  the  first 
dynasty  that  had  made  Babylon  its  capital — that  of  Kham- 
marugas,  no  less  than  twenty-two  centuries  before  Christ. 

The  ascent  was  made,  we  are  told,  by  a  winding  path 
round  the  outside,  with  a  landing  place,  and  seats  for  rest- 
ing, about  the  middle  of  the  way  up  ;  while  in  the  upper- 


AT    HABYLON.  269 

most  tower  there  was  ii  spacious  temple  with  an  apartment 
splendidly  furnished,  in  which  stood  a  couch,  and  by  its 
side  a  table  of  gold,  for  the  accommodation  of  Nebo,  the 
god  to  whom  the  whole  was  dedicated;  but  there  was  no 
image  of  the  god  in  it,  though  a  priestess  slept  in  the 
chamber  at  night.  In  the  temple,  on  the  lowest  step, 
there  was  a  golden  image  of  Belus  on  a  throne  of  gold, 
before  a  golden  table,  set  on  a  golden  floor ;  and  another 
golden  statue  of  the  god,  24  feet  high,  stood  in  the  temple 
enclosure,  till  Xerxes  took  both  away. 

If  the  measurement's  thus  given  by  these  ancient  author- 
ities be  correct,  the  building,  must  have  been  indeed  im- 
mense, for  the  Great  Pyramid  itself  is  only  750  feet  square 
at  its  base,  and  rises  to  a  height  of  only  480  feet ;  whereas 
this  tower,  from  a  square  base  of  over  600  feet,  rose  120 
feet  higher.  Its  vastness  may  indeed  be  gathered  from  the 
fact  that  Alexander  the  Great  employed  10,000  men  for 
two  months  in  removing  the  rubbish  which  at  his  day 
had  fallen  from  it.  Nor  is  there  any  good  ground  for 
questioning  the  correctness  of  the  old  Greek  historian,  for 
the  temple  was  still  standing  in  something  like  complete- 
ness when  he  was  in  Babylon,  though  Xerxes  had  rifled  it 
of  its  treasures  and  dug  into  it  in  search  of  them. 

This  mighty  city  Nebuchadnezzar  boasted  to  have  vir- 
tually created.  It  was  the  ''  great  Babylon  which  he  had 
built/^ '  Nor  was  he  without  good  grounds  for  the  haughty 
vaunt.  Proofs  of  its  substantial  truth  still  abound.  The 
great  new  palace,  he  tells  us,^  was  entirely  built  by  him, 
and  so  also,  ancient  writers  inform  us,  were  the  famous 
'Mianging  gardens;'^  and  the  bricks  of  the  Kasr  are  all 
stamped   with   his   name.     He   relates   that   he   carefully 

>  Dan.  iv.  80.  *  Records  of  the  Past,  vol.  v.  pp.  130, 131. 


270  AT   BABYLOK. 

repaired  the  old  palace^  and  enlarged  and  thoroughly 
renewed  the  vast  ancient  reservoir  of  the  city.  Inscribed 
bricks  confirm  his  own  statement  that  he,  in  effect,  rebuilt 
the  great  temple  of  Bel/  and  he  names  eight  other  temples 
which  he  either  built  or  restored.  But  his  greatest  work 
was  the  reconstruction  of  the  gigantic  walls  of  the  city, 
which  were  in  ruins  when  he  ascended  the  throne.  ^^Im- 
gur-Bel  and  Niniiti-Bel,  the  great  double  wall  of  Babylon," 
says  he,  "  I  built.  I  completed  buttresses,  to  embank  its 
moat,  and  I  made  two  long  embankments  of  brick  and 
cement  along  the  sides  of  the  river,  joining  them  with  the 
one  made  by  my  father.  I  strengthened  the  city,  and  built 
the  wall  on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  with  brick."''  ^'1 
raised  the  walls  of  the  fortress  of  Babylon,  its  defence  in 
war,  and  skilfully  strengthened  the  circuit  of  the  city." 

Nor  was  Nebuchadnezzar^s  amazing  energy,  as  the  re- 
storer of  Babylon,  confined  to  the  city.  He  excavated 
two  broad  and  deep  canals,  one  of  them  uniting  the  Tigris 
wdth  the  Euphrates,  and  threw  a  great  bridge  over  the 
latter,  to  connect  the  two  halves  of  the  city.  At  Sippara 
he  dug  a  huge  reservoir,  said  to  have  been  a  hundred  and 
forty  miles  in  circumference  and  a  hundred  and  eighty 
feet  deep,  providing  flood-gates  by  which  its  waters  might 
be  drawn  off  at  will  for  irrigation.  A  great  canal,  of  which 
traces  are  still  visible,  was  dug  by  him  from  Hit,  on  the 
Euphrates,  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  a  distance  of  400  miles, 
and  quays  and  breakwaters  rose  at  its  mouth,  at  his  com- 
mand, to  receive  the  commerce  of  distant  lands.  A  city 
was  founded  by  him  on  the  coast,  to  repel  the  Arabs.  At 
Borsippa,  besides  building  five  other  temples,  he  restored 
the  temple  of  Nebo — identified  by  some  with  the  Tower  of 

»  Records  of  the  Fast,  vol.  v.  p.  119.  J  Ibid.,  vol.  v.  p.  125. 


AT   BABYLON.  271 

Babel — and  now  the  mightiest  ruin  in  Mesopotamia. 
Bricks  bearing  his  name  are  found  over  the  whole 
country  ;  at  least  a  hundred  sites  in  the  district  imme- 
diately round  Babylon  thus  shewing  that  they  owed  their 
chief  glory  to  him.  Indeed,  nine-tenths  of  the  bricks 
brought  from  Mesopotamia  bear  liis  name.     The  creator  of 


A  Grovb  op  Pauis. 

the  later  empire  of  Babylon,  he  was  also  the  author  of  its 
architectural  splendour.  He  must  be  regarded  as  the 
greatest  builder  of  ancient  or  modern  times.' 

In  the  magnificence  of  Babylon  and  its  palaces  Daniel 
and  his  companions  passed  their  days — amidst  lofty  pyra- 
mid temples  reflecting  every  colour  from  their  ascending 
stages  ;  houses,  far  and  near,  painted  in  bright  tints  at  the 
pleasure  of  their  owners,  surrounded  by  groves  of  gigantic 

*  Rawlinson's  Anc.  Monarchies.,  vol.  iii.  p.  489  ;  Pusey's  Daniel,  p.  119. 


272  AT  BABYLOK. 

palms  and  many  other  trees;  the  soft  green  of  open  parks, 
and  the  verdure  of  gardens.  Outside  the  walls,  countless 
silvery  canals,  shaded  with  trees,  threaded  the  landscape 
amidst  broad  plains  waving  with  corn,  or  teeming  with  the 
richness  of  varied  crops.' 

The  pomp  and  splendour  of  such  a  city  and  such  a 
monarchy  must  have  amazed  the  Hebrew  exiles.  We 
know  from  the  projjhets  the  wealtli  of  its  commerce,  which 
implies  the  luxury  and  magnificence  of  its  merchant 
princes.  Its  ''chariots  like  whirlwinds,^'  its  ''horses 
swifter  than  eagles, '^  its  horsemen  and  charioteers,  its 
infantry,  with  spear  and  helmet  and  shining  armour,  made 
its  army  the  finest  in  the  world.  At  Nebuchadnezzar's 
receptions  Daniel  must  often  have  gazed  with  wonder  on 
the  state  and  glory  of  the  crowd  of  satraps,  captains, 
pachas,  chief  judges,  treasurers,  counsellors,  and  rulers  of 
provinces,^  in  gorgeous  uniforms  and  magnificent  robes — 
worthy  of  the  greatness  of  the  State  they  served. 

As  became  so  mighty  a  capital,  the  science  of  the  day 
found  its  headquarters  in  Babylon.  Of  this,  magic  and 
divination  formed  a  prominent  feature,  and  engrossed  the 
studies  of  a  special  body  of  scholars.  Hundreds  of  tablets 
yet  remain,  shewing  the  exorcisms,  charms,  talismans,  and 
astrological  forms  in  vogue.  Observatories  crowned  the 
summits  of  most  of  the  pyramid  temples,  and  reports  from 
them,  regularly  sent  to  court,  were  supposed  to  enable  the 
initiated  to  predict  the  future,  in  nature,  politics,  and 
private  life.^  Various  orders  of  these  religio-scientific 
dignitaries  are  mentioned  in  the  Book  of  Daniel — the 
chartumim,  who  were  perhaps  the  sacred  scribes,  and  seem 

»  For  a  fine  description  of  the  Babylonian  landscape,  see  Ebers,  yEg.  KonigstocJiter^ 
Yol.  ii.  p.  2. 
»  Dan.  iii.  3,  27.  3  Records  of  the  Past,  vol.  i.  pp.  153-157, 158-161. 


AT   BABYLON.  273 

to  have  been  also  interpreters  of  omens/  or  '^revealers  of 
secret  things ; '" '  the  ashaphim,  or  matterers  of  magic 
spells;^  the  meclisaphim,''  mutterers  of  other  kinds  of 
spells — men,  apparently  professing  to  have  power  with 
evil  spirits  ;  the  Oliasdim  or  ^''' Chald^eans/'*  ^  who  were  the 
astrologers  or  interpreters  of  the  bearing  of  the  stars  on 
human  affairs,  Ohaldaea  being  the  fatherland  of  the 
science  ; "  the  Hahamim,''  or  ''  magi/^  or  '•'  wise  men/' 
including,  apparently,  all  the  preceding  classes ;  and  the 
gazerim  ^ — perhaps  another  name  for  the  astrologers,  since 
the  word  means  the  casting  of  horoscopes,  and  reading  the 
supposed  influence  of  the  stars  and  planets  on  the  fate  of 
individuals  and  kingdoms.  The  "  wisdom  "  of  these  classes 
was  the  boast  of  Babylonia.  It  was  in  such  studies  that 
Daniel,  after  his  palace-education,  on  being  brought  before 
Nebuchadnezzar,  himself  an  adept  in  all  these  matters,  was 
found  better  skilled  than  any  member  of  the  various 
orders.* 

Examples  of  the  importance  attached  to  dreams,  in  anti- 
quity, have  frequently  come  before  us  in  earlier  volumes, 
and  will  naturally  occur  to  every  student  of  Scripture. 
That   of    Assurbanipal,***  of    Assyria,    quoted "    from   his 


*  Ebers,  jEg.  n.  d.  Bilcher  MoHs,  p.  341. 

2  Harkary,  in  Jonrn.  Asiat.,  1870,  p.  168.  Chartumim  (magicians),  Dan.  1.  20,  seems 
to  be  a  Hebrew  word,  from  Cheret,  a  stylus,  or  ancient  pen. 

3  In  Syriac  it  is  applied  to  those  who  charm  scorpions  and  serpents  by  whispering:. 
It  is  a  Uebrew  and  also  a  Chaldsean  word.  It  is  rendered  "  astrologers,"  Dan.  i.  20. 
The  gate  of  the  temple  of  Bel  was  called  Bab  Assaput— "  the  gate  of  the  oracle,''  and 
there  was  a  chamber  in  the  temple  called  Bit  Assaput,  "  the  house  of  the  oracle." 
Lenormant,  La  Divination,  pp.  133-4. 

*  Dan.  ii.  2.    "  Sorcerers."  ^  Dan.  ii.  2. 

«  Gesenius,  Jes.,  vol.  ii.  p.  349.    Egypt  may  perhaps  dispute  the  honour. 
'  Dan.  ii.  14.  ^  Dan.  ii.  27.    "  Soothsayers." 

"  Dan.  i.  20.    On  the  religions  ideas  of  the  Babylonians,  see  vol.  i.  pp.  251,  257. 
'«>  For  the  importance  of  dreams  among  the  Egyptians,  see  vol.  i.  pp.  440,  ff. ;  among 
the  Assyrians,  vol.  v.  p.  83.  "  Vol.  v.  p.  83. 

VOL.  VI.— 18 


274  AT   BABYLON-. 

inscriptions,  shews  the  profound  agitation  into  which 
even  the  most  powerful  minds  were  cast,  in  those  ages, 
from  such  plienomena  of  sleep,  so  little  regarded  in  our 
own  day.  It  is  therefore  strictly  in  keeping  with  what 
might  be  expected,  to  read  of  similar  alarm  and  anxiety 
having  been  caused  to  Nebuchadnezzar  by  such  a  visita- 
tion. In  the  second,  or,  according  to  some  readings,  the 
twelfth  year  of  his  reign,'  the  sleep  of  the  Great  King,  we 
are  told,  was  troubled  by  a  dream,  all  recollection  of  which 
had  fled  when  he  awoke.  The  whole  staff  of  diviners, 
astrologers,  and  magi,  were  summoned  forthwith  to  the 
palace,  that  by  spells  and  conjurations  one  class  of  them 
might  force  the  evil  spirits,  who  had  snatched  the  vision 
from  the  king's  brain,  to  give  it  back,  while  another 
should  move  the  beneficent  spirits  of  the  sky  to  reveal 
it  to  them  by  magic  arts,  or  by  the  signs  of  the  stars  and 
planets.'  In  every  detail  the  narrative  is  true  to  the  pict- 
ure of  Babylonian  life  disclosed  by  the  clay  literature  of 
the  times.  The  name  of  Arioch,  the  "  captain  of  the  king's 
guard,"  ^  is  the  Babylonian  Iri  Aku,  ^'  the  servant  of  the 
moon  god.''  *  His  office  of  carrying  out  the  sentences  pro- 
nounced by  the  king,  is  in  exact  accordance  with  the  duties 
of  his  position  as  captain  of  the  royal  body-guard,*  and  the 
punishment  of  being  cut  in  pieces  and  having  their  houses 
levelled,  which  was  the  penalty  of  not  recalling  the  dream, 
is  thoroughly  Babylonian.  Sennacherib,  indeed,  had  thus 
treated  a  whole  city,  on  taking  it,  after  the  great  rebellion.® 

»  Dan.  ii.  1. 

»  In  Dan.  ii.  4,  read  "The  Chaldseans  answered  the  king,  (AramHean),"  that  is— 
•'  here  Aramaean  or  Chaldee  begins."  They  answer  in  their  own  language.  Some 
copyist  has  inserted  the  word  "  Aramaean,"  translated  "  Syriac  "  in  A.V. 

s  Dan.ii.  14. 

*  Gen.  xiv.  1.     Schrader,  Keilinsch.,  2te  Aufg.,  p.  430. 

*  Jer.  lii.  15;  xxxix.  9,  11.    2  Kings  xxv.  8.  •  See  vol.  iv.  p.  4Sii, 


AT  BABYLOK.  275 

In  contrast  to  the  Medes,  whose  king  had  to  consult  with 
his  nobles,  and  was  compelled  to  act  in  some  cases  against 
his  will,  in  obedience  to  the  law  ''  which  altered  not/" '  the 
kings  of  Babylon  were  absolute  in  the  fullest  sense  of 
the  word.  No  law  restrained  them.  As  in  Turkey  at  the 
present  day,  their  highest  dignitaries  were  mere  slaves, 
elevated  at  the  will  of  their  master,  and  dependent  on 
his  passing  caprice.  The  chief  eunuch,  one  of  the  highest 
officials,  is  rightly  described  in  Daniel  as  fearing  lest  ^*  his 
head  might  be  endangered  "  by  the  smallest  deviation  from 
his  master^s  will.'  Every  one  in  the  State,  whatever  liis 
rank,  held  his  position  and  life  only  at  the  will  of  the 
monarch.  '^  Whom  the  Great  King  would  he  slew,  and 
whom  he  would  he  kept  alive,  and  whom  he  would  he  set 
up,  and  whom  he  would  he  put  down.""  ^  His  rank  was 
that  of  a  son  of  the  gods,  before  whom  all  men  were  as 
nothing.  ''  Merodach,"  says  Nebuchadnezzar,  '^  created 
me  in  my  mother's  womb."*  King  Khammurabi  claimed 
to  be  the  son  of  Merodach  and  Ei,*  and  had  his  name  in- 
scribed, during  his  lifetime,  along  with  that  of  the  gods, 
the  people  swearing  by  his  name  as  a  divine  being."  Nor 
was  it  different  with  other  Babylonian  or  Assyrian  kings.' 
Acquaintance  so  minute  with  the  ideas  prevalent  in  Baby- 
lon, as  to  the  importance  attached  to  dreams,  their  professed 
interpretation  by  the  rules  of  astrology  and  magic,  the  dif- 
ferent classes  of  "  wise  men,""  the  high  rank  they  held  in 
the  State,  the  punishments  inflicted  at  the  royal  will, 
and  even  with  the  Babylonian  proper  names  of  the  period, 

»  Dan.  vi.  14-17. 

»  Dan.  i.  10.    See,  on  a  later  page,  the  fear  of  Nehemiah  before  his  Persian  master. 

3  Dan.  V.  19.  ■•  Records  of  the  Past,  vol.  v.  p.  113. 

'  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  8.  »  Ibid.,  vol.  v.  p.  109. 

'  3p4aker'$  Commentary  onDau.  vi.  7. 


276  AT  BABYLON. 

are  silent  witnesses  to  the  truthfulness  of  the  book  in 
which  they  are  found.  Such  petty  details  and  exact 
local  colouring  imply  a  contem2:>orary  authorship  of,  at 
least,  parts,  of  our  version  of  ^'  Daniel/^ 

The  *^  great  image  ^'  seen  by  Nebuchadnezzar  in  his 
dream  '  is  no  less  strictly  Babylonian.  Colossal  forms,  hu- 
man and  bestial,  met  the  eye  on  all  sides  in  the  capital,  at 
the  palace  gates,  in  the  courts  of  the  temples,  and  else- 
where, and  might  easily  be  woven  into  the  texture  of  a 
dream.  Statues  were  brought,  as  a  special  object  of  plun- 
der, from  conquered  cities,  and  set  up  in  the  metropolis  of 
the  victor.  Thus,  Assurbanipal  records  that  in  one  cam- 
paign he  brought  away  thirty-two  statues  of  kings,  in  sil- 
ver, gold,  bronze,  and  alabaster,  and  others  of  the  gods.* 
The  gold,  silver,  bronze,  and  iron  of  Nebuchadnezzar's 
image  were  thus  familiar  for  such  uses,  and  the  excavations 
attest  that  statues  in  baked  clay  abounded. 

That  a  forgotten  dream  should  have  been  recalled  by 
Daniel,  and  interpreted  with  such  evident  wisdom,  filled 
the  mind  of  the  Great  King  with  awe.  He  felt  that  the 
Jewish  captive  was  the  mouthpiece  of  a  Power  greater 
than  his  own,  and  therefore  more  than  human.  Himself 
skilled  in  the  superstitious  arts  of  his  day,^  he  saw  that 
they  had  utterly  failed,  where  Daniel  stood  triumphant. 
Such  a  result  implied  the  direct  aid  of  a  God  mightier  than 
those  invoked  by  the  Babylonians,  and  the  Divine  honours 
supremely  due  to  a  Being  so  transcendent  demanded  tliat 
the  highest  respect  should  be  shewn  to  His  represeiitative. 
The  scene  at  the  gate  of  Lystra,  where  the  crowd,  under 
similar  excitement,  wished  to  sacrifice  to  Paul  and  Barna- 
bas, was  anticipated  in  the  gorgeous  halls  of  the  Great 
»  Dan.  ii.  31.  2  Smith's  Assurbanipal,  pp.  227-230.  '  Dan.  i.  SO. 


AT   BABYLON.  27? 

King.  Ftalling  clown  on  his  face,  Nebuchadnezzar  paid 
Daniel  the  lowly  reverence  due  to  a  messenger  of  the  High- 
est God,  while  the  priests,  at  his  order,  poured  out  a  drink- 
offering  at  his  feet,  and  burned  incense  before  him.'  To 
raise  him  to  lofty  dignity  followed.  Such  a  man  was 
clearly  the  most  illustrious  of  the  sacred  orders  of  Babylon ; 
he  should  henceforth  bear  rank  as  such,  and  take  prece- 
dence in  the  metropolitan  province,  which  included  Baby- 
lon and  the  district  round.  But  Daniel,  always  generous 
and  faithful,  shrank  from  such  an  exaltation,  until  he  had 
secured  that  of  his  three  companions  also,  to  posts  of  dig- 
nity ;  the  special  honour,  however,  being  granted  to  him 
alone,  of  apartments  in  the  royal  palace/  Four,  at  least, 
of  the  Hebrew  captives  were  thus  advanced  within  the 
charmed  circle  ^  where  they  could  most  efficiently  serve  the 
interests  of  their  race. 

The  incident  of  the  golden  image  set  up  by  the  Great 
King "  is  illustrated  in  many  of  its  details  by  the  inscrip- 
tions, or  from  hints  of  ancient  authors. 

Colossal  statues  of  gold  were  familiar  to  the  Babylonians. 
The  description  given,  by  Diodorus  of  Sicily,  of  the  three 
which,  till  it  was  plundered  by  Xerxes,  crowned  the  great 
Temple  of  Bel,  displaying  to  all,  far  and  near,  the  figures 
of  the  three  great  gods  of  the  city,  shews  that,  if  they  were 
solid,  they  contained,  with  the  altars  and  other  accessories 
before  them,  a  mass  of  the  precious  metal,  equal  in  value 

I  Dan.  ii.  46. 

'  Dan.  ii.  49.  The  words  "  sat  in  the  gate  of  the  king,"  are  equivalent  to  having 
quarters  in  the  palace,  as  the  gate  stands  for  the  whole  building.  Esther  ii.  19,  21 ; 
iii.  2,  etc. 

3  The  word  used  is,  that  he  made  them  shallits,  an  official  title  used  in  the  inscrip- 
tions. It  is  the  diminutive  of  Sultan,  which  is  derived  from  thu  same  verb.  It  oc- 
curs in  Dan.  ii.  15  ;  v.  29.    Ezraiv.  20.    Dan.  ii.  48. 

*  Dun.  iii. 


278  AT  BABYLOl!;r. 

to  £17,225,000  of  our  money.'  Moreover,  in  the  temple 
at  Borsippa,  till  the  time  of  Xerxes,  there  was,  according 
to  Herodotus,^  who  visited  Babylon  soon  after,  a  statue  of 
solid  gold  18  feet  high.  There  is,  further,  in  the  British 
Museum,  a  tablet  containing  a  charge  laid  before  the  king, 
against  two  high  officials,  of  having  made  away  with  seven 
talents  of  pure  gold,"  destined  to  form  a  statue  of  himself 
and  his  mother."  The  very  robes  of  gold  presented,  appar- 
ently by  Assurbanipal,  to  the  great  idols,  Merodach  and 
Zirpanit,  in  the  pyramid  temple  of  Babylon,  weighed,  as 
we  learn  from  an  inscription,  four  talents,  which  was  equal 
to  £14,500,  and  were,  besides,  enriched  with  precious 
stones/  The  amount  of  gold  carried  off  by  Nebuchadnez- 
zar as  the  spoil  of  all  Western  Asia,  exceeds  imagination,  if 
it  were  not  confirmed  by  trustworthy  documents.  One  of 
his  inscriptions  informs  us  that  he  plated  an  altar  placed 
before  the  Temple  of  Bel,  with  pure  gold,  of  immense 
weight,  and  lined  all  the  interior  of  the  sanctuary,  at  the 
top  of  the  highest  stage  or  terrace  of  the  temple,  "  with 
beaten  gold,  shining  like  the  rising  and  setting  sun.""  A 
statue  of  one  of  the  Assyrian  kings,'  and  others  of  Nebo 
and  Istar,  were  found  at  Nimroud,*  so  that  Nebuchadnez- 
zar's golden  image  was  strictly  in  keeping  with  the  fashion 
of  the  time,  while  the  gigantic  size  affected  in  this  case 
harmonized  with  his  other  creations  at  Babylon. 

Such  sacred  images  were  inaugurated  with  extraordinary 
solemnities,  the  statue  being  borne  along  with  all  rever- 

1  Diod.  Sic,  ii.  9.  2  Herod.,  i.  181. 

3  The  value  of  this  weight  of  gold  would  be  over  £25,000. 

*  Lenormant,  Choix  de  Textes,  fasc.  4.  '  West.  Asiat.  Im.,  ii.  38,  3. 

•  Ibid.,  i.  53,  58. 

"<  Now  in  the  British  Museum.    See  Layard,  Nineveh  and  its  Remains,  Tol.  ii.  p, 
51. 
8  Rawlinson's  And.  Hon.,  vol.  i.  pp.  141, 341. 


AT  BABYLON.  279 

ence,  in  a,  procession  of  the  notables  and  sacred  orders, 
amidst  the  loud  celebrations  and  rejoicings '  of  a  great  pub- 
lic festival.  Shalmaneser,  who  was  contemporary,  as  king 
of  Assyria,  witli  Ahab  and  Jehu,  and  also  Samai-Eimmon, 
his  son,  had  erected  statues  of  their  ''  magnified  royalty  " 
at  Nineveh,''  and,  as  a  still  mightier  sultan,  Nebuchadnez- 
zar miglit  well  go  beyond  them.  He  therefore  ordered  a 
liiige  image,  presumably  in  wood,  perhaps  of  himself,  per- 
haps of  his  chief  god,  Merodach,"  overlaid  entirely  with 
plates  of  gold,*  to  be  erected  in  the  Plain  of  Dura,  a  spot 
near  Babylon,  still  retaining  the  same  name.  It  lies  about 
five  miles  from  the  great  city,^  on  the  south-east,  in  a  dis- 
trict marked  by  the  dry  channels  of  various  ancient  canals, 
once  sjireading  fertility  on  every  side.  One  bears  the  name 
of  Xalir  Dura — ^'the  stream  of  the  walls'^ — joerhaps  from 
its  connection  with  the  great  moats  round  the  fortifica- 
tions. It  leads  to  a  series  of  mounds  extending  for  the 
distance  of  a  league.  These,  as  a  whole,  are  called  the 
Mounds  of  Dura  ;  the  ancient  watercourses  ending  at  their 
feet.  One  of  them,  now  named  Mokhattat — ^'^the  squared 
mound  " — faces  the  four  cardinal  points,  and  rises  to  the 
height  of  nearly  twenty  feet ;  each  side,  at  the  base,  being 
almost  exactly  fifty-six  feet  long.  On  the  top  of  this.  Op- 
pert  found  four  blocks  of  bricks,  formerly  a  united  whole. 
''On  seeing  this  mound,''  says  he,  ''one  is  instantly  struck 
with  its  resemblance  to  the  pedestal  of  a  colossal  statue, 

>  Records  of  the  Fast,  vol.  v.  p.  117. 

2  Ibid.,  vol.  L  p.  17.  Norris,  Ass.  Diet.,  vol.  ii.  p.  345.  Oppert,  Gram.  Atsyr.,  p. 
120. 

3  Lenormant,  Divination,  p.  183. 

*  The  great  image  of  Bel  is  said,  in  "  Bel  and  the  Dragon,"  to  have  been  of  clay 
within  and  brass  outside.    Bel,  etc.,  ver.  7. 

*  Oppert  places  it  outside  the  city.  The  Speaker's  Com.  supposes  it  was  within 
the  city.  But  the  houses  would  hide  u  w  idc  view  of  it  there.  Besides,  Oppert  was  on 
the  spot. 


280  AT   BABYLON". 

and  everything  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  the  base 
of  that  of  which  the  Book  of  Daniel  speaks/^  * 

The  monument  as  a  whole,  including,  we  may  suppose, 
the  platform  from  which  it  rose,  towered  to  a  height  of 
ninety  feet,'  with  a  breadth,  in  some  parts,  of  nine,  which 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  image  was  seated  rather 
than  erect,  like  some  of  the  colossal  forms  which  Nebu- 
chadnezzar had  seen  in  Egypt,  or  as  one  still  sees,  in  the 
'*  Vocal  Memnon^'  and  its  companion,  near  Thebes.  Such 
a  figure  would  be  visible  at  a  great  distance,  for  the  dip  of 
the  horizon  in  the  level  plain  of  Dura  is  only  fifty-three 
feet  in  twelve  miles. ^ 

The  inauguration  ceremonies  of  this  huge  idol  were  on 
a  scale  magnificent  even  for  Babylon.  Runners  posted  to 
distant  regions,  commanding  the  attendance  of  the  satraps 
and  their  deputies,  tlie  shallits  or  petty  sultans,  the  gener- 
als,* the  treasurers,  the  judges,  the  lawyers,  and  all  the 
governors  of  the  j^rovinces.  Ere  long,  the  roads  through- 
out the  empire,  leading  to  the  capital,  were  thronged  by 
brilliant  cavalcades  converging  on  the  great  centre,  and  in 
due  time  an  assembly  of  surpassing  splendour  appeared  at 
Dura,  to  honour  the  high  festival.  Religion  in  antiquity 
was  strictly  a  matter  of  state  ;  disloyalty  to  the  gods  ap- 
pointed for  public  worship  being  held  covert  disloyalty  to 
the  monarch  who  commanded  homage  to  be  paid  them. 
Hence  it  was  proclaimed  that  all  should  prostrate  them- 
selves when  the  outburst  of  triumphal  music  announced 
the   proper  moment  ;   refusal   to  do  so  being  threatened 

*  Expedition  en  Mesop.,  vol.  i.  pp.  229,  340.    Journ.  of  E.  Geog.  Soc,  vol.  x.  p.  93, 

2  Taking  the  cubit  at  eighteen  inches. 

3  Selby's  Trigon.  Survey  of  lUe.'^opotatnia,  India  Office. 

*  Rendered  by  some,  "magistrates  ;  "  by  Ewald,  "  arch-astrologers ;  "  by  Mtlhlau 
und  Volck,  "  chief  judges." 


AT  BABYLON. 


281 


with  the  terrible  punishment  of  being  burnt  to  death  in 
a  fiery  furnace.  This  was  the  fate  reserved  for  audacious 
rebels,  such  as  Saulmugina,'  or  blasphemers,  like  Dimaun, 
who  had  cursed  the  gods  under  the  reign  of  Assurbanipal. 
A  picture  on  the  palace  walls  of  that  monarch,  at  Kou- 
yiHidjik,  indeed,  shews  two  unfortunate  creatures  being 
burnt  alive,  their  tongues  having 
first  been  pulled  out/  The  narra- 
tive of  Daniel's  companions  having 
been  thrown  into  the  burning  fur- 
nace for  refusal  to  worship  the 
golden  image,  is  thus  in  strict  ac- 
cordance with  Babylonian  usages. 

That  the  names  of  some  of  the 
instruments  used  at  the  inaug- 
uration of  the  golden  idol — the 
sambuke,  the  kitharis,  and  the  psal- 
terion ' — are  Greek,  has  been  re- 
garded as  shewing  ^*  Daniel  "to  be 
of  late  origin.  But  while 
occupies  a  small  space  in  the  sculp- 
tures of  the  earlier  kings,  it  became  a  prominent  feature 
in  all  religious  and  public  ceremonies  in  Assyria  and 
Babylon,  in  the  beginning  oi  the  sixth  century  before 
Christ,  that  is,  just  before  the  time  of  Nebuchadnezzar  ; 
and  nothing  was  more  natural,  when  we  remember  the 
wide  dispersion  of  the  Greeks  even  at  an  earlier  period, 
than  that  foreign  instruments  should  have  been  familiar 
on  the  Euphrates,  at  this  time.  Greek  regiments  had 
been  common  in  Egypt  for  generations.     Sargon,  so  long 

>  See  vol.  V.  p.  86.  a   West.  Asiat.  Inscr.,  iii.  37,  7. 

'  The  sambtlkG  was  a  large  harp,  similar  to  our  own  ;  the  kitharis,  a  lyre,  like 
ours  ;  the  psolterion,  another  varietj'  of  the  lyre. 


music    A  Plater  on  the  Egyptian 
Guitar,  Assyria. 


283  AT  BABYLON. 

before  as  the  days  of  Isaiah,  knew  the  lonians,  or  Greeks. 
Sennacherib  had  invaded  Oilicia.  Esarhaddon  and  As- 
surbanipal  came  in  contact  with  the  race  in  Phoenicia, 
and  both  kings  had  Greek  chiefs  of  Cyprus  as  their 
tributaries.  Foreign  instruments,  moreover,  would  be  as 
eagerly  sought  after  then  as  now ;  and  if  we  meet  Sanscrit 
words  for  Indian  productions  '  in  the  Book  of  Kings,  why 
not  Grecian  names  in  Daniel,  for  importations  from  the 
West  ? 

Indeed,  the  musicians  on  the  late  Assyrian  sculptures 
use  a  variety  of  instruments,'  of  which  many  were  un- 
doubtedly foreign,  like  the  hinnor  of  Syria,  the  double 
flute  of  Asia  Minor,^  and  the  seven-stringed  cithara,  which 
is  certainly  a  Greek  invention."  Nor  can  we  forget  how 
captives  were  forced  by  their  masters  to  sing  and  play 
their  native  music,  as  the  Psalms  so  pathetically  record  in 
the  case  of  the  Jews.^ 

^  In  the  narrative  of  the  deliverance  of  the  three  Hebrew 
confessors  from  the  fiery  furnace,  Nebuchadnezzar  is  rep- 
resented as  saying  that  he  saw  a  fourth  presence,  like 
that  of  the  ^'  Son  of  God,^^  ^  but  as  the  article  is  wanting  in 
the  sacred  text,  it  is  more  correct  to  read,  "  'a.  son  of  the 
gods."  Regarding  himself  as  of  Divine  descent,  he  may 
have  used  the  phrase  only  in  allusion  to  a  royal  dignity  in 
the  Form,  like  his  own.  But  another  meaning  is  not  im- 
probable, for  the  word  Bar,  employed  by  the  Great  King, 
though  equivalent  to  "  Son,"  was  also  the  special  name  of 
the  God  of  Fire.  It  may  be,  therefore,  that  he  fancied  he 
recognized,  in  the  angel,  a  form  like  '^  Bar,  of  the  gods,'* 

»  See  vol.  iii.  p.  425.  '  See  vol.  iv.  p.  113. 

s  Five  Great  Monarchies,  2d  ed.,  vol.  i.  pp.  529,  530,  534. 

*  Lenormant,  La  Divination,  p.  191. 

•  Pb.  cxxxvii.  *  Dan.  ill.  25. 


AT   BABYLON".  283 

and  thought  the  fire-god  himself  had  appeared  on  behalf 
of  tlie  sufferers,  as  a  protest  against  their  treatment.  The 
Babylonians  burned  their  dead,  perhaps  from  regard  to 
the  health  of  the  living,  but,  also,  to  free  the  soul  from 
the  defilement  of  the  body,  and  thus  purify  and  sublime  it. 
For  purposes  of  cremation,  they  had  perpetually  burning 
furnaces,  and  into  one  of  these  the  three  Jews  were  cast.' 

The  mental  alienation  of  Nebuchadnezzar  ■*  was  un- 
doubtedly the  form  of  madness  known  as  lycanthropy,'' 
in  which  the  habits  of  animals  are  in  some  form  assumed 
by  the  insane  person.  Instances  of  those  afflicted  in  this 
way  eating  grass,  leaves,  twigs,  etc.,  like  the  Great  King, 
are  familiar  to  medical  men.  Nor  is  it  uncommon  for  the 
mind  to  lose  its  balance  in  some  direction,  in  one  raised 
so  far  above  all  other  men  as  a  mighty  despot,  and  so  irre- 
sponsible. Many  of  the  Csesars  undoubtedly  suffered  this 
terrible  penalty  of  solitary  greatness,  nor  are  theirs  the 
only  instances  of  the  kind  in  history.  That  any  allusion 
to  such  a  humiliating  calamity  should  be  found  recorded 
in  the  Babylonian  annals,  is  not  however  to  be  expected. 
It  would  be  carefully  guarded  from  the  knowledge  of 
chroniclers,  as  a  palace  secret.  But  that  some  terrible 
illness  seized  Nebuchadnezzar  is  strangely  proved  by  the 
recent  discovery  of  a  bronze  doorstep,  presented  by  him  to 
the  great  ten:^^ple  of  El  Saggil,  at  Borsippa,  one  of  the 
suburbs  or  divisions  of  Babylon.  It  speaks  of  his  having 
been  afflicted,  and  of  his  restoration  to  health,  and  may 
well  have  been  a  votive  offering  to  the  gods  on  his  recovery 
from  the  attack  mentioned  in  Daniel.  Nor  is  this  at  all  in- 
consistent with  his  recorded  homage  to  Jehovah."    Though 

»  Bab.  and  Orient.  Record,  i.  17-21.  2  Dan.  iv. 

'  Dr.  Pusey  hac  collected  many  instances  of  this  ;  Daniel,  p.  42.5.    Lycanthropy 
=  literally,  "  the  change  of  a  man  into  a  wolf."  *  Dan.  iy.  34,  37. 


284  AT  BABYLOK. 

he  honoured  the  whole  of  the  gods,  his  inscriptions  shew 
that  in  a  restricted  sense  he  always  worshipped  one  god 
especially.  While  he  built  temples  to  various  divinities, 
and  acknowledged  not  only  the  '^  great  gods/^  but  at  least 
thirteen  besides,  he  also  speaks  constantly  of  the  ''  chief 
of  the  gods,"  the  "  King  of  tlie  gods,''  and  ''  the  God  of 
gods."  Merodach  is  ''the  Great  Lord,"  "  God  his  maker," 
the  ''Lord  of  all  beings,"  "the  Prince  of  Heaven,"  "the 
God  of  Heaven  and  Earth,"  "the  Lord  of  Lords,"  "the 
Lord  God."'  He  might,  therefore,  have  for  the  time  trans- 
ferred to  Jehovah,  perhaps  as  another  name  for  his  own 
Merodach,  the  homage  hitherto  rendered  to  the  Babylonian 
idol. 

With  the  fourth  chapter  of  Daniel,  the  Scripture  record 
of  Nebuchadnezzar's  life  closes.  He  survived  his  tem- 
porary alienation  for  some  years,  and  died  in  B.C.  561,  the 
undisputed  ruler  of  his  vast  empire.  Unfortunately,  very 
few  cuneiform  memorials  of  his  reign  have  survived  ;  nor 
are  there  any  annals  of  his  campaigns,  like  those  left  by 
some  Assyrian  kings.  His  inscriptions  refer  mainly  to  the 
construction  of  temples,  palaces,  and  public  buildings  ;  but 
they  incidentally  throw  light  on  his  zeal  for  the  gods,  and 
his  pride  in  being  virtually  the  builder  of  his  mighty 
capital. 

The  record  of  his  repairing  the  Temple  of  the  Seven 
Lights  at  Borsippa  has  already  been  given, '^  in  illustration 
of  tlie  story  of  the  Tower  of  Babel.  Besides  this,  we  have 
a  lengtliened  statement  of  his  building  or  restoring  various 
temjiles,  at  an  immense  cost,  and  of  his  raising  the  walls, 
digging  the  moats,   and   otherwise  strengthening  the  de- 

i  See  Records  of  tlie  Past,  vol.  v.  pp.  Ill,  ff.  ;  vol.  vli.  pp.  69,  ff. 
2  Vol.  i.  p.  220. 


AT  BABYLOH.  285 

fences  of  Babylon,  and  a  very  short  notice  of  liis  expedi- 
tions to  Egypt.'  Fortunately,  however,  there  have  come 
to  light  a  series  of  commercial  tablets,  the  business  records 
of  a  great  banking  house  in  Babylon,  beginning  with  the 
lirst  year  of  his  reign,  and  continuing  for  the  next  117 
years,  to  the  thirty-fifth  year  of  King  Darius  Hystaspis, 
B.C.  485.  Egibi,  the  founder  of  the  house,  seems  to  have 
lived  in  the  later  years  of  the  reign  of  Sennacherib  ;  but 
though  this  is  implied  by  a  single  tablet  of  B.C.  G77,  the 
unbroken  series  begins  only  in  B.C.  604.  They  are  of  the 
greatest  value  in  fixing  dates ;  but,  besides  this,  they  inci- 
dentally throw  light  on  not  a  few  points  of  Babylonian  life. 
One  records  a  loan  of  a  few  shekels  to  some  needy  borrower  ; 
auotlier  the  sale  or  mortgage  of  great  estates.  Every  legal 
precaution  is  taken  in  the  various  documents  to  prevent 
fraud  and  secure  the  exact  fulfilment  of  covenants,  under 
every  contingency.  Witnesses  duly  attest  each  transac- 
tion, and  each  tablet  is  duly  docketed  and  labelled,  after 
being  registered  in  the  government  office  at  Babylon. 
While  the  Hebrews  were  listening  to  Ezekiel  at  Chebar, 
and  Daniel  was  at  his  duties  or  studies  in  the  palace,  the 
clerks  and  principals  of  the  great  banking-house  were 
quietly  working  at  their  desks  in  the  city,  discounting 
bills,  advancing  loans,  and  negotiating  sales  and  mort- 
gages, as  if  the  business  premises  of  Egibi  were  the  only 
important  spot  in  the  universe  ! 

We  must  not,  however,  slight  the  money-making  labours 
of  these  Old  World  bankers  and  bill-broke^-s  unduly,  for, 
very  unintentionally,  they  have  thrown  light,  iu  these  days 
of  excavation,  in  their  tablets  which  have  been  exhumed, 
on  the  loca^.  surroundings  of  the  Jewish   population,    in 

»  See  p.  199. 


286  AT  BABTLOif. 

Babylonia,  during  the  Exile.  They  reveal,  for  instance, 
that  not  a  few  of  the  general  community  were,  as  we 
should  say,  middle-class  people,  in  the  seventh  and  sixth 
centuries  before  Christ,  and  we  may  be  sure  that  a  good 
many  Hebrews  plied  their  instinct  for  money-making,  at 
least  as  successfully  as  any  other  members  of  the  body 
politic.  From  one  tablet  we  find  that  4, GOO  sheep  were 
given  to  one  temple  in  a  single  year  ;  the  owners,  however, 
being  allowed  to  redeem  them,  if  they  chose,  on  payment 
of  certain  sums.  Herodotus  tells  us  that  Babylonia  sup- 
plied one-third  of  the  corn  of  the  Persian  empire,  and  the 
Egibi  tablets  corroborate  the  high  fertility  this  involves. 
Thus  one  tablet  gives  a  single  customer  credit  for  ten  thou- 
sand measures  of  grain,  paid  in  during  the  year  B.C.  553 — 
the  third  of  King  Nabonidus ;  another  credits  five  hundred 
measures  to  a  second  customer,  in  one  year.  In  addition  to 
receipts  for  corn,  moreover,  we  find  numbers  for  deliveries 
of  quantities  of  barley,  dates,  fruit  of  various  kinds,  and  of 
oils  and  honey  ;  all  these  varied  riches,  including  the  corn, 
seeming  to  have  been  payment  of  taxes  or  dues,  the  collec- 
tion of  which  the  Egibis  had  secured,  among  other  sources 
of  profit.  The  persons  paying  them  are  described  as  gar- 
deners, farmers,  boatmen,  scribes,  weavers — one  being  dis- 
tinguished as  *^the  master  of  the  camels/^  Receipts  to 
women  shew'  that  both  sexes  had  the  honour  of  bearing 
the  burdens  of  the  State.  Receipts  for  quantities  of  mate- 
rials of  various  kinds,  for  repairing  or  beautifying  the  tem- 
ples, are,  also,  among  the  tablets.  Thus,  in  the  eighth  year 
of  Nabopolassar,  B.C.  616,  a  quantity  of  wood  and  stone, 
for  such  purposes,  is  acknowledged  ;  in  the  seventh  year  of 
Nebuchadnezzar  II.,  B.C.  547,  a  quantity  of  wood,  furni- 
ture,   and   bricks ;  in   other   years,    straw   and   reeds,  for 


AT  BABYLOIT.  287 

building  uses;  while  in  the  first  year  of  Cambyses,  B.C. 
529,  we  have  a  memorandum  of  the  receipt  of  five  minas 
wortli  of  cedar  and  cypress  wood.  Finally,  in  the  reign  of 
Darius,  there  is  an  entry  of  the  receipt  of  fifty-four  shekels 
of  gold,  a  metal  not  much  in  circulation  then.  One  of  the 
most  interesting  features  of  the  tablets  is  the  great  care 
with  which  the  accounts  are  kept.  The  names  of  the 
payers  are  entered  in  full,  and  sometimes  the  name  of  the 
father  and  the  trade  are  given.  The  amount  is  entered  in 
ruled  columns,  and  separate  payments  in  other  columns, 
the  total  being  given  at  the  foot,  and  the  whole  is  some- 
times countersigned  by  witnesses.? 

There  is  a  strange  tradition  respecting  the  end  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar's reign.'  It  relates  that  after  he  had  grown 
mightier  than  Hercules,  and  had  undertaken  campaigns 
to  Libya  and  Iberia,  and  settled  part  of  the  subdued  nations 
at  Pontus,  on  the  Black  Sea,  the  Great  King  went  up  to 
the  roof  of  his  palace,  and  prophesied,  by  the  inspiration  of 
a  god,  that  the  Medes  and  Persians  would,  hereafter,  bring 
the  Babylonians  to  slavery,  not  without  guilt  on  the  jmrt 
of  the  ruler  of  the  empire.  Having  uttered  these  things, 
Nebuchadnezzar,  we  are  told,  suddenly  vanished. 

>  From  Abydenus  in  Eusebius,  Prcep.  Evan.,  ix.  41,  b.    Ed.  Gaisford. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

COMFORT   YE   MY   PEOPLE. 

Evil-Merodach      .     B.C.  563-560  Pisistratus  in  Athens  b.c.  560 

Nergal-Sharezer  .             560-557  Cyrus  conquers  Media  558 

Laborosoarchod    .            557  Crcesus  reigns  in  Lydia  558 

Nabonidus    .     .     .            554-538  Crcesus  overthrown  by 

Cyrus  occupies  Babylon    538               Cyrus 545 

The  year  B.C.  562  was  marked  by  the  death  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, at  the  age  of  about  eighty,  after  a  reign  of  more 
than  forty-three  years.  He  had  created  the  mighty  empire 
over  which  he  ruled,  and  it  may  be  said  to  have  died  with 
him  ;  for  in  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  city  of 
Babylon  itself  yielded  to  Cyrus  without  a  blow.  His  son, 
Evil-Merodach  ('Olerodach's  Man''),  succeeded  him;  but 
is  known  as  king  only  through  his  kindness  to  Jehoiachin, 
who  had  languished  in  Nebuchadnezzar's  dungeons  for 
thirty-seven  years.  Releasing  him  after  his  long  durance, 
he  '^  spoke  kindly  to  him,"  we  are  told,  and  gave  him 
maintenance  from  the  royal  table  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 
Zedekiah  was  doubtless  already  dead,  else  he  would,  we 
may  suppose,  have  shared  in  this  good  fortune.  But  the 
benefactor  of  the  poor  Jewish  king  did  not  live  long  to 
enjoy  his  high  position.  Three  years  after  his  accession  he 
was  murdered  by  Nergal  Sharezer,  or  Neriglissar,  his  son- 
in-law,  who  seems  to  have  been  the  '^  prince  "  of  that  name 
holding  a  command  in  the  army  of  Nebuchadnezzar  at  the 


COMFORT   YE   MY    PEOPLE.  289 

taking  of  Jerusalem.'  Like  that  dignitary,  he  is  styled  in 
the  inscriptions  ^'  Rubu  Emga/'  or  Rab  Mag — a  title  the 
meaning  of  which  is  not  known — and  it  is  not  probable 
that  two  persons  of  the  same  name  could  have  held  the 
dignity  it  represents,  under  the  same  king.  He  had 
married  a  daughter  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  thus  had 
every  opportunity  for  treason.  But  he  did  not  live  long 
to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  crime,  dying  a  natural  death 
within  less  than  four  years  and  a  half  after  his  accession. 
A  palace  built  by  him  has  been  discovered  at  Babylon  ;  the 
only  one  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Euphrates  ;  his  name 
and  titles  appearing  on  the  bricks  wliich  still  remain.  His 
son,  who  succeeded  him,  was  a  mere  boy,  and  was  murdered 
after  a  brief  reign  of  four  months.  The  throne  was  then 
seized  by  Nabunahid,  or  Nabonidus,  who  claimed  to  be  the 
son  of  the  Rubu  Emga,  the  title  given  to  Nergal  Sharezer. 
He  was  the  last  king  of  Babylon,  retaining  the  sovereignty 
till  overthrown,  after  seventeen  years,  by  Cyrus.  Of  his 
reign  the  inscriptions  furnish  us  with  some  notices,  which 
will  be  given  in  their  place. 

The  religious  life  of  the  Jewish  exiles  in  these  years  was 
slowly  reawaking,  under  the  influence  of  their  national 
misfortunes  and  of  the  words  of  the  prophets.  It  is 
impossible  to  assign  precise  dates  to  many  of  the  Psalms, 
but  some  appear  to  refer  so  distinctly  to  the  Captivity  that 
we  may  fitly  ascribe  them  to  that  period. 

The  14th  may  belong  to  this  class,  though  some  would 
assign  it  to  the  Persian  age,  when  the  feeble  Jewish  colony 
in  Jerusalem  was  sorely  oppressed,  both  by  traitors  among 
themselves,  and  by  their  overbearing  masters. 

'  Jor.  xxxix.  3.    Anthorilies  for  the  chronology  :  RUetfschi  in  Herzog,  2te  Auf ., 
art.  "Nebuchadnezzar  ;  "  Sayce,  Fresh  Light,  etc.;  Riehm,  Calwer  Bit>eUexic(m^etc. 
Jiecoids  of  the  Past,  N.  S.,  vols.  i.  to  v. 
VOL.  VI.— 19 


290  COMFORT   YE   MY    PEOPLE. 

"  XIV.  1.  The  fool '  says  in  his  heart,  '  there  is  no  God.' 

They  have  corrupted  themselves,  they  have  done  abominable  deeds, 

There  is  no  one  that  does  what  is  right. 

2.  Jehovah  looked  down  from  heaven  on  the  sons  of  men, 
To  see  if  there  were  any  that  had  understanding; 

Any  who  sought  after  God  ! 

3.  All  have  turned  aside;  all  alike  are  corrupted:  ^ 
No  one  does  good,  no,  not  one ! 

4.  '  Are  all  these  workers  of  iniquity  without  knowledge. 
Who  eat  up  my  people  as  they  eat  bread. 

And  do  not  worship  Jehovah  ?' 

5.  They  trembled  in  great  fear  (where  no  fear  was),' 
For  God  is  in  the  generation  of  tlie  righteous. 

6.  Ye  may  pour  contempt  (ye  who  believe  not  in  God)  on  the  oppressed, 
Because  he  makes  Jehovah  his  refuge!     (It  matters  not!) 

7.  Oh  that  the  Salvation  of  Israel  would  come  out  of  Zion ! 

When  Jehovah  turns  back  the  captivity  (or  'restores  the  prosperity')  of 

His  people,' 
Jacob  shall  rejoice  and  Israel  shall  be  glad  !  " 

In  the  lOStli  and  106tli  Psalms  the  great  deeds  per- 
formed by  God  in  ancient  times  on  behalf  of  His  people 
seem  to  be  recapitnlated,  to  rouse  the  exiles  to  confidence 
that  He  would,  after  all,  deliver  the  nation  from  their 
present  calamities.  Both  poems  shew  a  minute  acquaint- 
ance with  the  early  history  of  the  race,  as  preserved  in  the 
Pentateuch,  which  must  thus  have  been  universally  known, 
and  accepted  as  a  sacred  record,  when  they  were  written. 
The  national  idolatry  of  the  past  is  sternly  denounced,  and 
a  spirit  like  that  of  Phinehas  shewn  against  any  approach 
to  it.  Israel,  it  tells  us,  had  sinned  in  not  destroying  the 
heathen  nations  of  Canaan  utterly.*  Failing  to  do  this,  its 
sons  had  mingled  among  them  and  imitated  their  idolatry. 

*  Ps.  xiv.  *  Tainted,  or  sour. 

'  From  the  duplicate  version  of  the  Psalm  (liii.  5).    The  Hebrews  were  in  terror  of 
their  heathen  oppressors,  but  without  cause,  "  for,"  etc.;  see  next  line. 

*  Ps.  cvi.  34.    Deut.  vii.  8.    Num.  xxxiii.  5::i.    See  further,  in  any  Reference  Bible. 


COMFORT   YE   MY    PEOPLE.  291 

They  had  sacrificed  to  the  Shedim,  the  gods  represented  in 
Babylonia,  by  the  colossal  bulls  and  monsters  around  them.' 
The  blood  of  their  sons  and  daughters  had  been  offered  to 
the  idols  of  Canaan,  till  God,  in  His  wrath,  had  given  them 
into  the  hand  of  the  heathen,  and  they  that  hated  them 
ruled  over  them.  But  even  in  their  exile  He  had  remem- 
bered them,  for  His  covenant's  sake,  and  ^'  made  them  to 
be  pitied  of  all  those  that  carried  them  captive/' 

* '  C VI.  47.  Save  us,  0  Jehovah,  our  God ! "  "  concludes  the  Psalmist, 
"  and  gather  us  from  among  tlie  heathen,  to  give  thanks  unto  Thy  holy 
name,  and  to  glory  in  Thy  praise." 

Then  follows  the  grand  doxology  : 

**48.  Blessed  be  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  from  everlasting  to  ever- 
lasting! 
And  let  all  the  people  say  Amen  I 
Hallelujah!" 

But  it  is  in  the  137th  Psalm  that  we  meet  with  the  most 
pathetic  memorial  of  these  gloomy  days,  written  after  the 
return  of  the  exiles  to  their  own  land  ;  a  memorial  touch- 
ing in  its  sympathy  for  Israel  in  its  sufferings,  but  marked 
by  that  fierce  spirit  towards  the  enemies  of  the  nation 
which  shews  the  contrast  between  Judaism  and  Chris- 
tianity. 

"CXXXVII.  1.  By  the  streams'  of  Babylon,  there  sat  we,  and  wept, 

When  we  thought  upon  Zion ! 

2.  We  hanged  our  harps  on  the  willows  *  in  the  land ; ' 

»  Schrader's  Keilinschrift.,  p.  160.  Ps.  cvi.  37.  '  Ps.  cvi.  47,  48. 

•  The  canals  of  irrigation.    Ps.  cxxxvii.  1,  2. 

*  The  weeping  willow,  to  which,  from  this  passage.  Linmeus  gave  the  name  Salix 
Babylonica,  is  not  found  in  Babylonia.  "The  weeping  willow  is  indigenous  in 
China  and  Japan,  cultivated  in  Europe,  but  neither  indigenous  nor  cultivated  in 
Babylonia."  Koch's  Dendrologie,  vol.  ii.  p.  507.  It  may  be  either  the  tamarisk  or 
the  poplar,  to  which  the  Arabs  still  give  the  name  of  Eveb,  the  word  used  in  this 
Psalm.  Stanley'  Lectures,  vol.  iii.  p.  11.  Wetstein,  in  Delitzsch's  Jes.,  2te  Auf..  p. 
460,  is  of  this  opinion  also.  Dr.  Triatram,  however,  thinks  the  willow  is  intended. 
N.  H.  B.y  p.  414.  *  Ewald. 


COMFORT   YE   MY   PEOPLE. 

*'  3.  For  there  our  oppressors  demanded  from  us  the  music  of  our  songs, 
Our  slave-drivers  required  us  to  make  mirth  for  them. 
(Ordering  us  to)  '  Sing  (to  them)  the  songs  of  Zion  ' ! 

*'4.  How  could  we  sing  the  songs  of  Jehovah  in  a  strange  land? 

"5.  If  I  forget  thee,  0  Jerusalem, 

Let  my  right  hand  forget  (its  cunning); 

6.  Let  my  tongue  cleave  to  my  palate 

If  I  do  not  rememl)er  thee; 

If  I  set  not  Jerusalem  above  my  chief  est  joy! 

"  7.  Remember,  0  Jehovah,  to  the  sons  of  Edom,  the  day  (of  the  fall) 

of  Jerusalem ;  ^ 
How  they  cried,  '  Raze  it,  raze  it  to  its  foundations! ' 

''*  8.  0  daughter  of  Babylon,  thou  oppressor, 
Joy  to  him  who  repays  thee  what  thou  hast  done  to  us! 
9.  Joy  to  him  who  takes  thy  children  and  dashes  them  against  the 
stones ! " 

The  book  of  Daniel^,  as  it  now  is,  falls,  naturally,  into 
two  parts  ;  the  first  six  chapters  being  devoted  to  historical 
narrative  ;  the  following  six  to  prophetic  visions.  These, 
moreover,  are  presented  in  an  apocalyptic  form,  which  has 
its  faint  prototype  in  some  of  the  chapters  of  Ezekiel/  and, 
even  earlier,  in  the  use  of  the  cabalistic  name  Sheshach 
for  Babylon,  by  Jeremiah,"  and  that  of  Jareb  for  the  king 
of  Assyria,  by  Hosea/  In  Daniel,  however,  this  cryptic 
style  is  elaborated  to  a  mnch  greater  extent ;  virtually  in- 
troducing a  new  form  of  composition,  which  continued  to 
be  much  used  by  the  Jews  in  their  religious  writings,  even 
as  late  as  the  middle  ages.  A  close  examination  of  the 
visions  thus  distinguishing  this  Book,  has  led  even  such 
conservative  critics  as  Delitzsch  to  assign  a  laet  date  to  it, 
in  its  present  state.     Even  the  Jews,  indeed,  do  not  place 

*  Ps.  cxxxvii.  3-9. 

2  Obad.  xi,  12.    Jer.  xlix.  7-22.    Lam.  iv.  21, 22.    Ezek.  xxv.  &-14.    Zech.  i.  15. 

'  Ezek.,  chapters  i.,  x.,  xvii.,  xxviii.  *  Jer.  li.  41.  *  Hoe.  v.  13 ;  x.  & 


COMFORT   YE   MY    PEOPLE.  293 

it  among  the  other  prophets,  but  in  the  third  division  of 
the  sacred  books,  which  shews  that  it  was  not  known  when 
the  prophetical  books  were  collected.  Nor  is  there  any 
mention  of  it  even  by  the  Son  of  Sirach,  in  his  list  of  the 
famous  men  of  God  in  the  past,^  though  he  wrote  as  late 
as  the  beginning  of  the  second  century  before  Christ.  The 
Hebrew,  moreover,  is  of  a  very  late  type,  for  it  is  not  even 
that  of  the  Exile,  and  whole  sections  are  written  in  the 
Jewish-Syrian  of  the  age  just  before  our  Lord.  The 
visions  relate  to  the  Chaldsean,  Median,  Persian,  and 
Graeco-Macedonian  periods,  with  slight  allusions  to  any- 
thing beyond.  But  the  earlier  monarchies  are  treated  in 
a  very  brief  and  general  way,  while  minute  details  are 
given  of  the  oppressions  of  the  Jews  by  the  Ptolemies 
and  the  Syrian  kings,  as  late  as  the  first  quarter  of  the 
second  century  before  Christ.  It  has,  hence,  come  to  be 
held  by  scholars  generally,  that,  as  we  have  it,  Daniel  is 
a  memorial  of  the  literature  composed  to  stir  up  the  en- 
thusiasm of  the  Hebrew  population,  to  strike  for  inde- 
pendence, which,  as  we  know,  they  did  in  a  grand  wa}^, 
in  the  Maccabeau  struggle.  As  if  the  altered  circum- 
stances of  the  times  had  influenced  the  form  of  revela- 
tion, the  seer  no  longer  conveys  the  messages  of  God  to 
His  people  by  ordinary  discourse,  but  by  a  series  of  visions 
in  Avhicli  angels  take  the  2^hice  of  ^^tlie  word  of  Jehovah.''^ 
He  is  no  more  a  preacher  to  his  contemporaries,  but  dis- 
closes to  them  the  future  history  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Ezekiel,  as  we  have  said,  had  already  introduced  this  apoca- 
lyptic feature,  but  Daniel  confines  himself  to  it ;  and  it  is 
a  curious  question  how  far  the  mind  of  both  may  have  been 
influenced  in  the  mystical  style  of  their  visions  by  earlier 

*  Ecclus,  xlix. 


294  COMFORT    TE    MY    PEOPLE. 

writings,  more  or  less  similar  in  character.  Zoroaster, 
the  great  reformer  of  the  ancient  Persian  religion,  had 
ended  his  course  before  that  of  the  Jewish  prophet  began, 
and  his  writings  and  sayings  may  readily  have  spread  from 
Persia  to  the  neighbouring  Babylon.  Local  influences,  as 
we  have  seen,  affected  the  inspired  writers  as  they  do  others, 
and  it  is,  thus,  noteworthy  to  find  in  Zoroaster  such  a  pas- 
sage as  the  following: 

^^Zertuscht^  having  asked  Ormuzd  for  immortality,  was 
shewn  by  him  the  Omniscient  Wisdom.  He  saw  a  tree 
with  such  a  root  that  four  trees  had  sprung  from  it, — a 
golden,  a  silver,  a  steel,  and  an  iron  one.  Then  said  Zer- 
tuscht :  '  Lord,  thou  ruler  of  the  dignities  of  earth  and 
heaven,  I  have  seen  the  root  of  a  tree  from  which  four  trees 
have  sprung.'  And  Ormuzd  replied  to  the  holy  Zertuscht : 
'  The  root  of  this  one  tree  thou  hast  seen  is  the  world  ; 
and  the  four  trees  that  have  sprung  from  it  are  the  four 
times  that  are  to  come; — the  golden,  when  I  and  thou  are 
at  one,  and  Kstagp-shah  receives  the  law,  and  the  body  of 
the  Devs  is  broken  in  pieces  and  they  hide  themselves  ;  the 
silver  is  the  reign  of  the  royal  Artaschir  ;  the  steel,  the 
reign  of  Anosherevan-Khosru,  son  of  Kobat ;  the  iron, 
the  evil  rule  of  the  Devs.^'''' 

The  similarity  between  this  and  the  visions  of  Daniel  is 
apparent  ;  and  it  can  be  no  irreverence  to  trace  the  influ- 
ence of  such  a  form  of  composition  on  that  of  the  sacred 
writer.  Designing  to  foreshadow  the  development  of  the 
kingdom  of  God,  lie  adopts  a  style  already  familiar  to  his 
brethren  in  their  new  home,  and  so  suited  to  the  popular 
taste  that  his  Book  became  the  first  of  a  long  series  of  writ- 

1  The  modern  name  for  Zoroaster. 

2  MS.  of  Prof.  Spiegel.    From  the  Bahman  Jescht.    Herzog,  2te  Auf.,  vol.  iii.  p. 
478. 


COMFORT  TE   MY  PEOPLE.  295 

ings  of  a  similar  type.  The  Book  of  Esdras,  the  Book  of 
Enoch,  the  Jewish  Sibyllines,  and  other  books  of  the  same 
class,  followed  the  model  thus  set,  and  formed  the  last  link 
between  ancient  prophecy  and  the  fulness  of  revelation 
under  Jesus  Christ.' 

But  it  was  not  to  the  prophecies  of  Jeremiah  and  Eze- 
kiel  only,  or  to  the  apocalyptic  visions  of  Daniel,  or  to  the 
writings  of  the  prophets  of  past  generations,  that  Israel 
owed  the  amazing  religious  revival  which  marked  the  later 
years  of  the  Captivity,  and  permanently  revolutionized  the 
national  character. 

The  high  position  and  personal  dignity  of  Daniel  must 
have  spread  his  name  very  early  amongst  the  exiles,  for  we 
find  him,  in  B.C.  592,  fourteen  years  after  his  deportation 
from  Jerusalem,  classed  by  Ezekiel  with  Noah  and  Job,  for 
his  righteousness,  and  five  years  later  spoken  of  by  the 
same  prophet,  as  the  wisest  of  the  wise,  in  all  tliat  concerns 
the  secrets  of  the  future.'  But  though  his  high  position 
and  great  name  might  be  a  boast  and  even  a  protection  to 
his  race,  his  visions  of  the  coming  changes  of  kingdoms 
bore  only  indirectly  on  personal  religion.  Much  of  Eze- 
kiers  teaching  was  equally  general,  while  many  of  his  dis- 
courses referred  to  events  of  the  day,  like  the  fall  of  Jeru- 
salem, though  the  whole  spirit  of  his  long  ministry  urged 
the  necessity  for  national  reformation,  as  a  preliminary  to 
the  obtaining  a  return  to  Canaan.     Jeremiah,  also,  had  for 

»  Menant  remarks  that  the  vision  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  of  the  image  of  gold,  silver, 
brass,  iron,  and  clay,  reads,  line  by  line,  like  the  paraphrase  of  some  cuneiform 
inscription. 

2  Ezek.  xiv.  14;  xxviii.  3.  It  has  been  thought  by  some  that  the  Daniel  thus  men- 
tioned must  have  been  some  unknown  saint,  as  the  Daniel  of  our  Book  came  from 
Judaea,  a  lad,  when  Ezekiel  was  already  a  man.  But  his  "  wisdom  "  came  very  early, 
and  may  well  have  made  him  famous,  even  while  Ezekiel  lived.  Nor  does  it  seem 
likely  that  we  should  have  no^  allusion  in  Scripture  to  the  supposed  Daniel,  if  he 
were  worthy,  as  we  see  he  was,  to  be  classed  with  Noah  and  Job. 


296  COMFORT  YE   MY   PEOPLE. 

many  years  preached  tlie  need  of  hearty  repentance  and 
loyalty  to  Jehovah,  and  the  power  of  his  words  increased 
with  the  course  of  years.  But,  besides  these,  the  portion 
of  Isaiah  extending  from  the  fortieth  chapter  to  the  end 
of  the  Book,  rich  as  it  is,  beyond  any  other  joortion  of  the 
Old  Testament,  in  its  evangelical  tone,  must  have  given 
a  mighty  impulse  to  the  movement  towards  a  higher  spir- 
itual life.  It  has  been  the  subject  of  much  controversy 
whether  these  chapters  were  uttered  by  Isaiah  himself,  or 
are  the  composition  of  an  unknown  prophet  who  lived  dur- 
ing the  Exile.  The  actual  authorship,  however,  or  even 
the  date,  is  by  no  means  a  vital  question,  if  the  inspiration 
of  the  writer  be  admitted.*  Many  books  of  Scripture, 
though  anonymous,  are  not  the  less  sacred  and  canonical, 
and  the  second  part  of  Isaiah  would  not  suffer  in  either  re- 
spect, even  if  another  prophet  had  written  the  first  section. 
The  writer  of  the  second  part  speaks,  indeed,  as  if  in  the 
midst  of  the  exiles ;  but  this  is  of  so  little  weight  that 
Ewald  assumes  him  to  have  lived  in  Egypt,  as  one  of  the 
fugitives  who  fled  thither  with  Jeremiah  after  the  murder 
of  Gedaliah.' 

Nor  are  the  arguments  based  on  philological  grounds 
more  conclusive.  The  vocabulary  of  the  second  half  shews 
striking  resemblances  to  that  of  the  first,  and  of  the  earlier 
prophets,  and  reveals  equally  marked  differences  from  that 
of  the  later.  While  848  words  of  the  second  part  are  found 
in  the  first,  only  735  of  these  occur  in  the  exile-prophet 
Ezekiel,  though  his  prophecy  is  about  twice  as  long. 
There  are  eight  words  found  in  both  parts  of  Isaiah  and 
nowhere  else,  but  there  is  only  one  that  is  peculiar  to  the 

1  Delitzsch.  Jes.,  vol.  ii.  p.  138. 

«  Seinecke  thinks  he  lived  iu  Jerusalem  ;  Ouhm,  that  he  did  not  live  in  Babyloa 
Theol  a.  Fropk.,  1875,  p.  ^83. 


COMFORT   YE   MY    PEOPLE.  297 

second  part  and  the  period  o£  the  Exile.  A  close  compari- 
son of  the  allusions  in  both  sections,  to  the  vegetable,  ani- 
mal, and  human  kingdoms,  shews  that  the  ideas  and  local 
colouring  are  closely  alike  throughout,  and  that  in  both 
parts  they  do  not  correspond  with  the  scenery  of  Babylon 
or  the  environments  of  one  living  there/  The  force  of  the 
argument  resting  on  the  rare  words  common  to  both  divis- 
ions may  be  illustrated  by  an  example.  There  are  two  He- 
brew nouns,  hor  and  liur,  from  the  root  ^^  to  be  white," 
meaning  ivliite  linen.  The  same  words  are  also  formed 
from  an  entirely  different  root,  '"  to  hollow  out,"  and  mean, 
in  this  case,  a  hole.  The  first  part  of  Isaiah  uses  lior  for 
white  linen,  and  hur  for  hole,  but  the  later  writers  reverse 
this.  The  second  part  uses  only  hur,  but  employs  it  in  the 
sense  of  hole,  thus  differing  from  later  writers,  and  agree- 
ing with  the  first  part.  Indeed,  this  is  one  of  the  eight 
words  occurring  only  in  the  two  parts  of  Isaiah.  In  the 
same  way,  the  word  purah,  "a  wine-press,"  occurs  only 
once  in  the  second  part,  and  once  in  Ilaggai,  a  pro23het  of 
the  period  after  the  Exile.  But  as  the  word  comes  from 
the  verb  to  hr^cise,  it  must  originally  have  meant  the  upj^er 
part  of  the  wine-press,  and  it  is  used  in  this  sense  in 
Isaiah,  while  Haggai  uses  it,  as  was  natural  in  a  late 
writer,  for  the  lower  part  of  the  wine-press,  into  which  the 
juice  flows. 

Such  arguments  may  seem  minute,  but  they  are  so  much 
the  more  forcible.  Wholly  undesigned  coincidences  and 
the  silent  testimony  of  language  may  well  be  set  against 
theoretical  objections,  or  fancied  diversities  of  style ;  for 
no  ancient  book  is  safe  if  critics  are  to  be  a  priori  judges. 

'  Sec  Bib.  Sacra,  1881  and  1882.  in  which  the  whole  pubject  is  treated  in  the  most 
masterly  way  by  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Cobb,  Uxbridge,  Mass. 


298  COMFORT    YE   MY   PEOPLE. 

Still,  it  is  well  to  remember,  that  the  most  sober  and 
devout  critics  have  latterly  come  to  a  very  general  agree- 
ment, in  assigning  the  second  half  to  a  great,  unknown 
prophet  of  the  Captivity  ;  even  so  reverend  a  scholar  as 
Professor  Driver  expressing  this  as  his  belief.  In  coming 
to  this  conclusion,  he  lays  special  weight  on  the  fact, 
which  is  beyond  question,  that  the  prophets  always  speak 
as  contemporaries  of  those  they  are  addressing,  though 
they  often  pass  from  the  horizon  of  the  present,  to  what  is 
still  future.  They  always,  however,  advance  from  what  is 
happening  around  them,  to  what  is  yet  to  be,  as  we  see  in 
Isaiah's  address  to  Ahaz,  when  he  met  him  at  the  fuller's 
field,  outside  Jerusalem.  There  is  no  instance  of  a  sacred 
writer,  taking  his  stand  in  the  midst  of  a  distant  age,  and 
bearing  himself  as  belonging  to  it,  as  Isaiah  must  have 
done,  if  he  be  the  author  of  the  second  part  of  the  grand 
Book  which  bears  his  name.  Nor  need  we  be  staggered 
by  the  two  portions  being  put  together,  for,  in  the  cen- 
turies that  elapsed,  before  the  prophets  were  finally  col- 
lected, questions  of  authorship  might  easily  get  confused. 

In  the  first  half,'  then,  the  prophet  always  addresses  the 
people  of  his  day,  alike  when  discussing  the  subjects  of  the 
hour,  or  when  he  passes  from  them  to  more  distant  in- 
terests. In  the  second  half,  we  are  transported  into  the 
midst  of  the  exiled  community  of  the  next  century,  and 
hear  the  sublimest  of  Hebrew  preachers  seeking  to  comfort 
them  in  their  sorrows,  and  lead  them  to  sincere  repent- 
ance.    The  despair  which  meets  us  in  some  chapters  of 

»  On  the  two  Bides  of  this  question,  see  Renss,  Gesch.  d.  A.  Test.,  pp.  426,  ff* 
Stahelin,  in  Studien  u.  Krit.,  1830,  vol.  i.  ;  1831,  vol.  iii.  Meier,  in  ditto,  1845,  vol. 
iv.  Riietfschi,  in  ditto,  18B4,  vol.  ii.  KeiPs  Einleitung,  p.  236.  Naegelsbach's  Jesaia, 
Eirdeitung.  Delitzsch's  Jesaia,  pp.  383,  fE.,  etc.,  etc.  Cheyne,  in  his  Origin  of  the 
FscUter. 


COMFORT   TE   MY   PEOPLE.  299 

Ezekiel,*  had  settled  on  them  like  a  thick  cloud,  and  still 
darkened  the  heavens.'  Israel  seemed  forsaken  by  Jeho- 
vah, its  ways  appeared  to  be  hidden  from  Him,  and  judg- 
ment against  its  oppressors  to  have  been  forgotten.  But 
the  prophet  knows  how  deeply  this  feeling  wrongs  both 
themselves  and  Jehovah.  After  contrasting  Jehovah '  with 
the  idols,  and  Israel  with  the  heathen,  he  describes,  almost 
like  a  fifth  Evangelist,  the  redemption  to  be  brought  by 
the  ''  Servant  of  Jehovah^'  and  His  subsequent  exaltation.* 
The  true  Israel  and  the  false  are  then  contrasted,  the  sins 
of  the  unworthy  denounced,  and  the  souls  of  the  faithful 
cheered  by  a  vision  of  future  national  glory.  The  truly 
righteous  alone  are  comforted.  It  is  twice  repeated,  that 
''  there  is  no  peace  from  Jehovah  to  the  wicked," '  whose 
awful  fate,  if  they  remain  impenitent,  is  proclaimed  in  the 
final  words — ''^  their  worm  shall  not  die,  and  their  fire  shall 
not  be  quenched. ''^ 

This  great  inspired  lyric  opens  by  a  command  from 
Jehovah  to  the  prophets  *  of  the  day,  to  comfort  His  peo- 
ple in  their  despondency.  Deliverance,  often  promised, 
was  still  delayed.  Jehovah  had  apparently  forsaken  them, 
and  this  well-nigh  cast  them  into  despair.  To  cheer  away 
their  sadness,  they  are  reminded  of  the  unchanging  love 
borne  towards  them  by  God. 

'*  XL.  1.  Comfort  ye/  (0  ye  prophets),  comfort  ye  My  people,  saith 
your  God.  2.  Speak  ye  to  the  (mourning)  heart  of  Jerusalem,  and  cry 
aloud  to  her  (that)  the  time  of  her  affliction"  is  completed, '^  that  (the 

>  Ezek.  xxxiii.  10  ;  xxxvii.  11,  2  Isa,  xl.  27  ;  xlix.  14.  ^  Isa.  xl.-xlviii. 

*  Isa.  xlix.-lvii,  6  jga.  xlviii.  22  ;  Ivii.  21. 

•  There  were  many  prophets.    Isa.  Hi.  8.    Jer.  xxix.  1.  1  Isa.  xl.  1,  2. 
8  Literally,  "  service  of  war,"  including  all  the  misery,  hardness,  and  Buffering  of 

a  soldier's  life  in  the  field  (Job  vii.  1,  10  ;  xvii.  14).    The  Septuagint  has  caught  the 
meaning  well,  rendering  the  word  "humiliation." 
»  The  figure  is  from  a  soldier's  time  of  service  being  ended.    Hosea  bad  called 


300  COMFORT   YE   MY   PEOPLE. 

penalty  of)  her  guilt  is  paid  oil,'  that  she  has  received  of  the  hand  of 
Jehovah  full  punishment '^  for  all  her  sins." 

Willie  the  prophet^  awestruck,  listens  to  this  voice  from 
above,  a  second  is  heard  announcing  that  preparations  for 
the  deliverance  of  Israel  are  already  begun.  Jehovah, 
Himself,  will  go  at  their  head  and  lead  them  forth  from 
captivity  ;  a  highway  being  first  made  ready  across  the 
desert,  as  before  great  princes,^  alike  to  do  Him  honour 
and  to  aid  the  march  of  the  ransomed  host. 

"  3.  Hark!  one  is  calling!  '  Prepare  ye  in  the  wilderness  a  way  for 
Jehevah ;  level  ye  a  road  through  the  desert  for  our  God !  *  4.  Let 
every  hollow  ^  be  filled  up,  and  every  mountain  and  hill  made  level, 

Israel  In  God's  name,  "Lo-ammi,"  "not  My  people;"  they  now  are  once  more 
"  My  people  "  (Hos.  i.  9). 

J  Jer.  1.  20.    Literally,  "  satisfied." 

"  Literally,  "double."  Jer.  xvii.  18.  See  vol.  v.  p.  280.  Gesenius,  Ewald,  and 
some  others,  understand  "  double  compensation,"  but  this  is  not  so  suitable. 

3  Arrian,  Exped.  Alex.,  iv.  .30.    Diod.  Sic,  ii.  13. 

*  As  every  Eastern  traveller  has  learned,  roads,  in  our  sense  of  the  term,  are  un- 
known. True,  we  have  the  phrase  corresponding  to  the  English  "  the  Queen's  high- 
way" {ed-derh  sultani),  "the  sultan's  road,"  but  it  is  a  mere  track.  The  feet  of 
camels  and  horses  are  the  only  road-makers  in  the  East  ;  and  generation  after  genera- 
tion walks  round  the  same  boulder,  makes  a  circuit  round  the  same  hollow,  no  man 
ever  dreaming  of  cutting,  levelling,  banking-up,  or  draining  a  road,  although  the 
remains  of  the  paved  and  levelled  highways  of  those  master  engineers,  the  Romans, 
may  be  seen  at  every  turn.  But  let  a  sultan  or  a  shah  propose  a  royal  progress,  and 
then  all  is  changed.  Pioneers  are  hurriedly  sent  forward  along  the  whole  route  ;  the 
neighbouring  population  is  at  once  impressed,  and  compelled  to  work  without  pay  ; 
the  stones  are  gathered  out,  the  dry  watercourses  are  filled  in,  the  rocks  are  scarped, 
the  6ides  of  the  hills  are  cut,  and  the  track  levelled  and  guarded.  No  obstacle  delays 
the  monarch's  advance.  I  myself  have  seen  the  road  which  was  cut  and  levelled 
from  Jaffa  to  Jerusalem,  to  receive  the  visit  of  the  Prince  Imperial  of  Austria.  But 
it  does  not  last  long.  The  first  rain  washes  all  this  loose  earth  away,  and  the  old 
rocks  and  watercourses  reappear.  Then,  when  the  highway  is  completed,  the  heralds 
are  sent  forth,  proclaiming  with  trumpet  and  clarion  the  advent  of  the  great  man. 
For  a  royal  personage  there  are  three  sets  of  heralds  :  the  first,  on  the  day  before  his 
arrival ;  the  second,  on  the  morning  of  the  day  ;  the  third,  which  we  should  call 
outriders,  immediately  in  front.  When  the  Sultan  was  about  to  visit  Broussa,  in 
Asia  Minor,  in  1845.  a  proclamation  was  issued,  ordering  the  stones  along  the  route 
to  be  gathered  out,  hollows  filled  up,  and  rough  places  smoothed.  It  was  the  sanw 
when  Ibrahim  Pasha  visited  the  Lebanon  districts.     Isa.  xL  3,  4, 

8  Hebrew,  "gai." 


COMFORT   YE   MY    PEOPLE.  301 

and  the  stony  places  made  smooth  (as  the  Mishnr  '),  and  the  rough 
hillocks  a  plain.  5.  Then  shall  the  glory  of  Jehovah  reveal  itself,  and 
all  flesh  shall  see  it;  ^  for  the  mouth  of  Jehovah  has  thus  spoken! ' " 

The  meutiou  of  the  glory  of  Jehovah  suggests  the  con- 
trast between  it  and  that  of  man,  even  when  represented 
by  the  ruler  of  a  mighty  empire  like  Babylon.  He  hears 
the  voice  that  has  already  spoken,  commanding  him  to 
cry  aloud. 

"6.  Hark!  a  voice  saying,  'Cry!'  And  (the  prophet)  said,  'What 
shall  I  cry?'  (Say),  All  flesh  is  grass  and  all  its  glory  like  the  flower 
of  the  field.  7.  The  grass  dries  up  and  the  flower  fades,  when  the 
wind  of  Jehovah  blows  over  it.  Verily  mankind  are  but  grass!  8. 
The  grass  dries  up,  the  flower  fades,  but  the  word  of  our  God  shall 
stand  for  ever."  ^ 

The  prophet  next  passes  in  imagination  to  Palestine,  and 
calls  on  Jerusalem  to  announce  to  the  cities  of  Judah  that 
their  God  is  coming,  at  the  head  of  the  exiles. 

"  9.  Get  thee  up  to  the  high  mountain,  0  Zion,  thou  announcer  of 
glad  tidings:  lift  up  thy  voice  mightily,  0  Jerusalem,  thou  proclaimcr 
of  good  news!  Lift  it  up!  Be  not  afraid!  Cry  to  the  towns  of  Judah, 
*  Behold  your  God ! '  10.  Behold,  the  Lord  Jehovah  will  come  as  a 
Mighty  One :  His  (strong)  arm  will  uphold  His  rule ;  behold,  His  re- 
ward is  with  Him  and  His  recompense  before  Him,"  * 

Israel  was  tlie  flock  of  Jehovah,*  for  two  generations 
Bcattered  and  wretched,  but  now  to  be  gathered  once  more 
into  the  green  pastures  of  their  own  land. 

"11,  He  shall  feed  His  flock  like  a  shepherd  ;  He  shall  gather  the 

»  See  vol.  ii.  p.  419.  2  Ewald  has  *'  His  salvation."    Isa.  xl.  5-11. 

'  The  Divine  promise  of  the  deliverance  of  Israel  from  Babylon. 
*  This  passage  may  refer  to  the  ransomed  exiles  as  the  reward  and  recompense  of 
His  might,  exerted  on  their  behalf. 
8  Ps.  Ixxvii.  ao  ;  Ixxx.  1.    Jer.  xiii.  17  ;  xxxi.  10;  1.  19.    Ezek.  xxxiv.  11-16. 


302  COMFORT   YE   MY   PEOPLE. 

lambs  in  his  arms,  and  carry  them  in  his  bosom, '  and  gently  lead  thosb 
that  are  giving  suck."^ 

The  redemption  of  Israel  from  Babylon  was,  however,  so 
mighty  an  undertaking,  that  it  might  seem  impossible. 
But  to  this  comes  the  answer,  that  Jehovah  is  Almighty. 
No  human  counsel  was  equal  to  carry  it  through,  but 
Jehovah  is  All- Wise.  AVhat  though  the  heathen  oppose 
them  ?     Who  are  they  to  resist  God  ? 

"  12.  Who  hath  measured  the  waters  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand,  and 
meted  out  the  heaven  with  the  span,  and  put  the  dust  of  the  earth  into 
a  measure,^  and  weighed  the  mountains  by  a  steelyard,  and  the  hills  in 
a  balance?  13.  Who  has  directed  *  the  Spirit  of  Jehovah,  or,' as  His 
counsellor,  has  taught  Him  ?  14.  With  whom  has  He  deliberated,  that 
he  (whom  He  thus  consulted)  might  give  Him  information,  and  teach 
llim  the  right  way,  and  supply  Him  with  knowledge,  and  shew  Him 
the  path  of  wisdom?  15.  Behold,  nations  are  counted  by  Him  as  a 
drop  from  a  bucket,  and  as  a  grain  of  dust  on  the  balance :  behold.  He 
lifts  up  the  isles  like  fine  dust,'  16.  and  (the  forests  of)  Lebanon  are  not 
sufficient  to  burn  (on  His  altar),  nor  its  wild  beasts  for  a  burnt-offering! 
17.  All  the  nations  are  as  nothing  before  Him — in  His  eyes  they  are  as 
things  of  nought;  as  if  they  were  only  an  empty  nothing!  " ' 

So  great  is  Jehovah.  Yet  men  have  worshipped  idols 
which  their  own  hands  have  made,  as  similitudes  of  the 
Eternal.     The  rich  have  idols  of  gold,  the  poor  of  wood, 

1  The  strap  round  the  waist  makes  the  upper  part  of  the  peasant's  ordinary  cotton 
shirt  into  a  great  pocket— the  depository  of  everything  he  values,  in  turn.  Num.  xi. 
12. 

2  See  Gen.  xxxiii.  13.  Isa.  Ix.  16  ;  Ixvi.  12.  See  vol.  v.  p.  347.  To  drive  the  flocks 
too  quickly,  even  for  a  single  day,  would  kill  those  that  were  giving  suck.  Gesenius, 
l8a.  xl.  11. 

3  A  shalish— the  third  of  an  ephah,  which  is  given  by  Josephus  as  over  eight  gallons, 
and  by  the  Rabbis  as  over  four.    Isa.  xl.  12-17. 

4  The  same  word  as  "  meted  out,"  in  ver.  12.  The  question  is  equivalent  to,  Who 
has  contributed  help  to  the  wisdom  and  omnipotence  of  God  ? 

6  What  man. 

•  "  Dak,"  the  word  here,  may  also  mean  a  withered  ear  of  corn. 
»  Literally,  "  And  as  emptiness  "—the  word  used,  "  Tohu,"  is  that  applied  to  the 
vacancy  of  chaos  before  creation  began. 


COMFORT   YE   MY   PEOPLE.  303 

but  how  could  either  think  that  their  images  were  like 
•Him  who  reigns,  unseen,  in  the  heavens  ? 

**  18.  To  whom  then  will  ye  liken  (this  great)  God,'  and  under  what 
likeness  will  ye  represent  Him?  19.  The  craftsman  casts  the  image, 
the  goldsmith  covers  it  over  with  plates  of  gold,  and  forges  silver 
chains,  (to  hold  it  in  its  niche).  20.  The  poor  man,  who  can  offer 
little  (to  his  god),  chooses  a  log  that  is  free  from  wormholes,  and  then 
seeks  a  skilled  workman,  to  set  up  (from  it)  an  idol  which  cannot 
move  from  its  place. 

*'  21.  Know  ye  not  ?  Have  ye  not  heard  ?  Has  it  not  been  told  you 
from  the  beginning  ?  Have  ye  not  known  from  the  foundation  of  the 
earth  ?  23.  (God  is)  He  who  sits  throned  on  the  (azure  heavens),  the 
circle  of  the  earth — whose  inhabitants,  (shew  far  beneath)  like  grass- 
hoppers ;  who  has  stretched  out  the  hollow  heavens  as  a  transparent 
veil,*^  and  spread  them  out  as  a  tent  to  dwell  in  ;  23.  who  brings 
princes  ^  to  nothing  ;  who  makes  the  judges  of  the  earth  as  less  than 
nought.*  24.  They  are  scarcely  planted  ;  they  are  scarcely  sown  ; 
scarcely  has  their  stock  taken  root  in  the  earth,  when  He  blows  on 
them  and  they  shrivel  up,  and  the  storm-wind  sweeps  them  away  like 
chaff  (from  the  threshing  floor). 

"25.  To  whom,  then,  will  ye  liken  Me  that  I  may  resemble  him, 
saith  the  Holy  One?  26.  Lift  up  your  eyes  on  high,  and  behold  :  who 
has  created  thesfe  things?  (It  is  Jehovah  !)  He  leads  out  their  host  in 
numbered  array,*  and  reads  out  the  roll-call  of  all  their  names.  In 
awe  of  His  great  might  and  the  majesty  of  His  power,  not  one  fails  (to 
answer)."  * 

The  long  delay  in  the  deliverance  from  Babylon  had 
sunk  Israel  in  despondency,  as  if  God  had  forgotten  them, 
or  overlooked  their  interests  amidst  the  cares  of  His  im- 
measurable empire.  But  it  was  utterly  wrong  and  foolish 
to  think  so. 

"  27.  Why  sayest  thou,  0  Jacob,  and  speakest,  0  Israel,  *  My  way  is 
hidden  from  Jehovah  :  my  right  has  been  overlooked  by  my  God  ? ' 

»  Isa.  xl.  18  27. 

2  Literally,  "  the  finest  cloth,"  through  which  one  can  see.    The  word  occurs  only 
once  in  the  Bible.    The  heavens  are  the  tent  cloth  over  the  earth. 
•  Literally,  "  the  heavy  "  =  "the  august."  *  Hebrew,  Tohu  =  chaos. 

»  Like  soldiers  moving  abreast  in  their  battalions.  «  To  the  roll-call. 


304  COMFORT    YE    MY    PEOPLE. 

28.  Dost  thou  not  know,'  hast  thou  not  heard — the  eternal  God,  Je- 
hovah, is  the  Creator  of  the  ends  of  the  earth,  who  faints  not,  neither 
is  weary ;  there  is  no  searching  of  His  understanding  ?  29.  He  gives 
strength  to  the  weary,  and  renews  the  powers  of  the  faint.  30.  Yea, 
though  even  youths  may  faint  and  be  exhausted,  and  young  men  fall 
down,  31.  yet  they  that  trust  in  Jehovah  "^  shall  get  fresh  strength  ; 
tliey  will  lift  up  their  wings  like  eagles,  ^  they  will  run  and  not  be 
weary,  they  will  walk  and  not  faint !  " 

The  prophet  now  passes  to  another  step  in  his  great 
argument.  Present,  in  spirit,  in  the  times  immediately 
preceding  the  Return,  he  describes  Jehovah  as  summoning 
the  heathen  nations  before  Him,  to  judge  between  His 
claims  and  those  of  idol-gods,  from  the  predicted  career  of 
the  appointed  deliverer  of  His  people — Cyrus,  the  Elamite. 
He  had  raised  him  up  and  made  him  triumphant,  nor 
could  the  idols  resist  his  might. 

"  XLI.  1.  Be  silent  before  Me,  0  islands  (and  coast  of  the  west),* 
and  let  the  peoples  collect  their  strength  anew,  (to  oppose  Me,  and 
defend  their  gods)  ;  let  them  come  near  and  speak  ;  let  us  come  to- 
gether, and  argue  the  matter  (between  Me  and  their  idols).  2.  '  Who 
raised  up  from  the  East  ^  the  man  whom  the  righteousness  (of  Jehovah) 
calleth  to  follow  His  steps,^  giving  up  the  nations  before  him,  and 
making  him  tread  on  (the  necks  of)  kings  ;  making  them  like  dust 
before  his  sword,  and  like  stubble  driven  by  the  wind,  before  his  bow? 
3.  He  pursued  them,  he  marched  on  safely,'  by  ways  which  his  feet 
had  not  trodden  before.^ 

"4.  'Who  did  all  this,  and  carried  it  out  ?  I  who  have  called  (to 
life)  the  generations  (of  men)  from  the  beginning — I,  Jehovah,  the 
First,  and  with  the  Last — the  Everlastmg  I.'"  ^ 

1  Isa.  xl.  28-31;  xli.  1-4.  2  Or,  wait  for. 

3  2  Sam.  i.  23.  ■*  Threatened  by  Cynis. 

5  Elam  was  east  of  Babylon.  In  ver.  25  Cyrus  is  said  to  come  from  the  North, 
because  Media,  which  also  he  virtually  ruled,  was  north  of  Babylon. 

®  This  seems  to  me  the  best  rendering  of  the  clause.  Diestel  and  many  others 
render  righteousness  as  equivalent  to  victory— and  read,  "  Whom  victory  meets  at 
every  footstep."  ">  Literally,  "  in  peace." 

8  The  Assyrian  kings  often  boast  of  marching  over  countries  never  before  invaded, 
or  trackless.  0  Isa.  xliv.  G  ;  xlviii.  12. 


COMFORT    YE    MY   PEOPLE.  305 

The  terror  of  all  lands,  before  him  whom  Jehovah  thus 
sent  against  them,  was  overwhelming.  Men  appealed  to 
their  gods,  set  up  new  ones,  encouraged  each  other  to  hope 
in  them — hut  all  in  vain.  Before  Cyrus  took  Babylon,  he 
had  marched  in  triumph  from  the  heights  of  the  Hindoo 
Khoosli  to  the  shores  of  the  Grecian  Archipelago,  humbling 
nation  after  nation.* 

*'5.  The  isles'^  (and  coasts)  saw  and  were  afraid,  the  ends  of  the 
earth  "  trembled — they  draw  together  and  come  to  each  other  (to  unite 
and  ally  themselves  against  the  invader).  6.  Every  one  helps  his 
neighbour  and  says  to  his  fellow,  *  Be  strong. ' 


)  ?5  4 


Especially  is  this  the  case  with  the  makers  of  idols. 
They  propose  to  make  new  gods  from  whom  to  ask  coun- 
sel and  obtain  protection. 

"  7.  The  metal-founder  cheers  the  maker  of  gold  and  silver  plates, 
and  he  that  (fits  them  on  the  idol,  and)  smooths  them  with  the  ham- 
mer, (cheers  up  the  smith)  who  works  at  the  anvil,  saying  (of  the  work, 
when  put  together),  '  It  is  beautiful, '  and  he  makes  it  fast  with  nails 
that  it  may  not  fall."  ^ 

Yet,  if  the  heathen  had  reason  to  be  terrified,  Israel 
need  not  fear. 

*'  8.  But  thou,  Israel,  My  servant,  Jacob  whom  I  have  chosen,  the 
sons  of  Abraham,  My  friend,®  9.  thou  whom  I  have  brought  from  the 
ends  of  the  earth  and  called  from  its  uttermost  parts,^  and  said  to  thee. 
Thou  art  My  seiwant ;  I  have  chosen  thee  and  have  nut  cast  thee  off 

1  Pahle's  Gesch.  des  Orient.  Alterthums,  p.  170. 

2  The  word  rendered  "isles  "  means  also  ''coasts."    Isa.  xli.  5-9. 
'  The  Westlands  =  Europe. 

*  Herodotus  tells  us  that  Egyptians,  Thracians,  Cypriotes,  Arabs,  Phoenicians, 

Greeks,  and  people  of  Asia  Minor,  were  united  under  Croesus  of  Lydia,  to  oppose 

Cyrus.     Herod.,  i.  28,  OO,  70,  77. 
6  This  would  be  the  worst  of  omens.  *  Literally,  "that  loved  Me." 

'  Either  of  the  call  of  Abraham  I'nmi  Mesopotamia,  or  of  that  of  Israel  from  Egypt, 

though  this  is  not  so  suitable,  since  Egypt  was  hardly  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  the 

Jew. 

VOL.  VL— 30 


306 


COMFORT   YE   MY   PEOPLE. 


(since).  10.  Fear  not,  for  I  am  with  thee;  look  not  round  (in  terror),' 
for  I  am  thy  God.  I  will  strengthen  thee,  I  will  help  thee,  yea,  I  will 
hold  thee  up  with  the  right  hand  of  My  righteousness.  11.  Behold, 
all  they  that  burned  with  rage  against  thee  shall  be  ashamed  and  con- 
founded, they  who  strove  with  thee  will  be  brought  to  nought  and  per- 
ish. 13.  Thou  shalt  seek  them  but  shalt  not  find  them;  those  who 
contended  with  thee,  and  they  who  fought  against  thee,  shall  be 
brought  to  nought  and  utterly  destroyed.  13.  For  I,  Jehovah,  thy 
God,  hold  fast  thy  right  hand;  I  who  say  to  thee  '  Fear  not,'— I  will 
help  thee." 


Threshing  Sledge. 

Instead  of  being  crushed,  Israel  will,  with  Grod^s  help, 
destroy  all  its  foes. 

"14.  Fear  not,  thou  worm  Jacob,  ye  (feeble)  folk  of  Israel:  I  will 
help  thee,   says  Jehovah ;  thy  Redeemer  ^  is  the  Holy  One  of  Israel. 


1  Or  for  help,  Gesenius.    Isa.  xli.  10-14.  | 

2  Hebrew,  G551.     Gen.  xlviii.  16.    Lev.  xxv.  25,  26. 
19.     Ruth  iv.  1.    Job  xix.  25.     Ps.  xix.  14  ;  Ixxviii.  : 


Num.  V.  8 ;  xxxv.  12  ;  xxxv. 
5.    Isa.  xliii.  14  ;  xliv.  6,  24 ; 


COMFOIIT   YE    MY    PEOPLE.  307 

15.  Behold,  I  will  make  thee  a  threshing  sledge,  sharp,  new,  with 
(many)  cutting-stones  (in  its  roller) ; '  thou  shalt  thresh  mountains  and 
crush  them  small,  and  make  hills  '^  as  chaff.  16.  Thou  shalt  winnow 
them,  and  the  wind  shall  carry  them  away,  and  the  tempest  shall  scat- 
ter them ;  but  tlioiL  shalt  exult  in  Jehovah  and  glory  in  the  Holy  One 
of  Israel." 

The  misery  of  the  Exile  and  the  joy  that  is  to  follow 
are  again  painted.  Even  the  desert,  which  they  must 
cross  to  regain  Canaan,  will  blossom  before  them.  How 
much  more  glorious  then  will  be  their  own  land  itself  1 

"17.  The  distressed  and  poor  ones — (the  flock  of  Israel  coming  back 
from  Babylon),  seek  water  (in  the  desert)  and  there  is  none,  and  their 
tongue  is  dried  up  for  thirst  !  (But)  I,  Jehovah,  will  hear  them :  the 
God  of  Israel  will  not  forsake  them  !  18.  1  -will  open  streams  on  the 
bare  hills  and  springs  in  the  midst  of  the  plains.'  I  will  make  the 
wilderness  ponds  of  water,*  and  parched  land  spring-heads  *  of  water. 
19.  (And  to  give  you  shade  and  fruit  on  your  march),  I  will  make  the 
cedar  grow  in  the  wilderness,  the  acacia,  the  myrtle,®  and  the  olive;  I 
will  plant  in  the  desert  the  cypress,  the  plane,  and  the  fig  tree,'^  20. 
that  they  may  both  see  and  acknowledge,  and  consider  and  take 
to  heart,  that  the  hand  of  Jehovah  has  done  this,  and  that  the  Holy 
One  of  Israel  has  created  it." 


xlvii.  4  ;  etc.,  etc.  For  the  meaning  of  the  word,  see  vol.  iii.  p.  24.  The  idea  is,  one 
charged  wifh  the  task  of  restoring  the  rights  of  another  ind  avenging  his  wrongs. 

»  See  vol.  iv.  p.  :386.    Mic.  iv.  13.    Isa.  xli.  16-20. 

'  Those  who  opposed  the  deliverance  of  the  exiles. 

'  The  word  is  applied  in  Scripture  to  "  the  Valley  oi  Jericho,"  "  the  Plain  of  Dura" 
at  Babylon,  and  "the  Plain  of  Mesopotamia."  Jericho  did  not  lie  in  a  valley,  but  on 
a  plain,  or,  rather,  a  slope. 

*  The  Hebrew  word  (sing.)  is  used  specially  of  the  pools  left  by  the  Nile  after  its 
inundations.     Similar  figures  are  used  in  Isa.  xxx.  25  ;  xxxv.  7  ;  xliv.  3, 4. 

^  The  word  is  from  the  verb  to  "  go  forth." 

"  The  Hebrew  word,  "  hadas,"  the  myrtle,  occurs  elsewhere  only  Isa.  Jv.  13,  and  in 
post-exilic  books,  Neh.  viii.  1.5  ;  Zech.  i.  8,  10, 11.  The  name  Iladassah,  "  the  myr- 
tle," is  found  in  Esth.  ii.  7.  But  myrtlesgrew  wild  in  Palestine,  and  there  is  no  older 
name  used  for  them,  so  that  no  argument  for  the  age  of  the  second  part  of  this  Book 
can  be  founded  on  its  being  the  first  to  refer  to  the  myrtle. 

'  These  last  two  names  are  uncertain.  The  one  has  been  rendered  "the  elm,"  "  the 
plane,"  and  "  the  fig  ;"  the  other  "  the  elm,"  "  the  box,"  the  "  Scherbin-cedar"  of 
Lebanon,  and  "  the  fig."  I  choose  "  fig  "  as  the  counterpart  of  "  olive  "  in  the  formei' 
claose. 


308 


COMFORT    YE    MY    PEOPLE. 


The  prophet  now  reverts  to  tlie  controversy  with  the 
idols,  proposed  by  Jehovah  in  the  opening  of  the  chapter. 
He  no  longer,  however,  addresses   their  worshippers,  but 

speaks  to  the  idols 
themselves.  They  are 
nothing,  since  they 
have  not  foreknown, 
far  less  brought  about, 
the  great  events  by 
which  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  to  be  promoted, 
Jehovah  alone  knew 
these  beforehand  and 
caused  their  realiza- 
tion. 

**  21.'  Bring  forward  your 
case  (0  ye  idols),'  says  Jeho- 
vah, 'produce  your  strong 
arguments  ^  (in  your  de- 
fence),' says  the  King  of 
Jacob.  22.  Yes,  let  them 
bring  them  forward,  and  tell  us  what  will  happen  (hereafter) !  Let 
them  tell  what  will  happen  in  the  immediate  future,  that  we  may  note 
it  and  watch  the  issue,  or  let  us  hear  what  lies  hidden  in  times  more 
remote.'*  23.  Reveal  what  is  to  happen  hereafter,  that  we  may 
acknowledge  you  to  be  gods ;  do  good  or  do  evil— (do  something)— that 
we  may  at  once  wonder  and  behold.  24.  Lo,  ye  are  airy  nothings,^ 
and  your  works  are  the  same;*  he  is  an  abomination  who  chooses  you 
(for  his  gods) ! 

"25.  I  (Jehovah)  have  raised  up  one  from  the  north*  and  he  is 

1  Literally,  "grounds  of  defence."    Isa.  xli.  21-25. 

2  Or,  let  them  tell  the  first  beginnings  of  things  in  the  past,  or  what  lies  hidden  in 
the  future. 

3  Literally,  "  spring  from  nothing." 

*  The  word  as  it  stands  in  the  Hebrew  occurs  nowhere  else,  and  is  unintelligible. 
The  Vulgate  and  other  versions  adopt  an  emendation,  meaning  "  of  nought." 
«  Media. 


The  Plane  Tree  (Platanus  Orientalis). 


COMFORT   YE   MY   PEOPLE.  309 

come;  from  the  rising  of  the  sun'  he  Ccalls  on  My  name!  He  shall 
trample  on  lofty  princes  as  if  they  were  mortar,  ^  and  as  the  potter 
treads  the  clay.  26.  Who  foretold  this  from  the  beginning,  that  we 
might  know  it?  Who  announced  it  beforehand,  that  we  might  say 
He  is  right?  There  is  no  man  amongst  you  who  predicted  it— no  one 
that  revealed  it — no  one  that  heard  a  word  from  you  (on  these  mat- 
ters)!' 27.  (I,  Jehovah),  first  said  to  Zion,  'Behold,  behold  them,'* 
and  gave  Jerusalem  a  bearer  of  the  glad  news.  ^  28.  But  when  I  look 
(among  your  prophets)  there  is  no  one  among  their  whole  crowd,®  (who 
has  foretold  the  future  as  I  have  done);  there  is  no  counsellor  that  I 
may  ask  through  him,  and  get  any  answer.  29.  Behold,  they  are  all 
vanity;  they  can  do  nothing;  their  molten  images  are  wind  and 
emptiness!  "  ^ 

1  Elam— Cyrus  united  Media,  Elam,  and  Persia  under  him. 

*  Mortar  is  made  in  the  East  by  treading. 

'  Literally,  '^  your  words."    Isa.  xli.  26-29. 

*  The  things  to  come,  or  the  returning  exiles. 

6  "The  first  who  gave  a  herald  of  good  to  Zion,  even  to  Jerusalem— one  who  said 
Behold,  behold  them  "    Ewald.  «  Literally,  "  them."  »  Tohu. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL. 

The  second  part  of  Isaiah  evidently  consists,  like  the 
other  prophetical  writings,  of  a  series  of  public  addresses, 
or  compositions  which  are  parts  of  a  related  whole.  The 
great  prophet-poet  returns  again  and  again  to  his  task  of 
comforting  the  people  of  God,  not  only  under  the  sorrows 
of  exile,  but  under  the  deeper  trial  of  an  apparently  long 
delay  in  the  appearance  of  the  promised  deliverer,  who 
should  ^^  restore  Israel."''  He  had  already  spoken  of  his 
nation  as  ^'  the  servant  of  Jehovah,"' '  but  he  now  uses  the 
title  in  a  way  incompatible  with  a  merely  figurative  and 
collective  meaning.  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,'^  like  him,  had 
applied  it  to  the  Chosen  People,  but  in  many  passages  of 
Isaiah  it  is  associated  with  striking  personal  traits  which 
imply  some  individual  reference.  It  cannot  refer  to  the 
prophet  himself,  for  the  dignity  ascribed  to  the  Servant 
of  Jehovah  is  far  above  that  of  any  prophet,  and  implies 
much  that  no  man  could  ever  perform.  Hence  even  the 
Targum  applies  the  phrase  to  the  Messiah,  thus  shewing 
the  sense  in  which  it  has  been  instinctively  understood,  by 
the  Jews  themselves,  from  the  earliest  times,  and  pointing 
out  the  only  adequate  application.  The  view  of  the  sub- 
ject taken  by  Delitzsch  and  Oehler,  seems  to  me,  therefore, 
substantially  correct.      The  conception  of  the  Servant  of 

»  Isa.  xli.  8.  '  '  Jer.  xxx.  10  ;  xlvi.  27,  28.    Ezek.  xxxvii.  25. 


THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL.  311 

God,  we  are  told,  may  be  compared  to  a  pyramid.  The 
base  is  Israel  as  a  whole  ;  above  that  is  Israel  in  a  spiritual 
sense,  and  the  apex  is  the  person  of  the  mediating  Saviour 
wlio  rose  out  of  Israel.'  '^In  its  highest  application,'^  says 
Delitzsch,  ^^I  regard  it  as  a  prefiguration  of  the  suffer- 
ing and  glorified  Redeemer,  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord  ;  as, 
indeed,  many  passages  of  the  Xew  Testament  directly  inti- 
mate." In  its  immediate  and  direct  application,  however, 
it  may  be  fitly  regarded  as  a  poetical  vision  of  the  glori- 
ous services  to  be  rendered  by  the  great  deliverer  from  the 
Babylonian  exile. 

"  XLII.  1.  Behold  My  servant  '  whom  I  uphold;  My  elect,  in  whom 
My  soul  deligliteth.^  I  have  put  My  Spirit  upon  him;  My  law  shall 
lie  make  known  to  the  nations.*  2.  He  shall  not  cry  nor  shout, 
nor  cause  his  voice  to  be  heard  in  tlie  street ;  3.  a  bruised  reed  shall  he 
not  break  off,  and  a  faintly  glimmering  wick  shall  he  not  quench ;  he 
shall  make  known  the  law  according  to  truth.  4.  He  will  not  faint  or 
give  way  *  till  he  has  established  the  Law  in  the  earth,  and  the  na- 
tions '  will  (eagerly)  look  for  his  teaching."  ' 

The  Servant  of  Jehovah  is  now  directly  addressed,  and 
the  work  He  is  commissioned  to  do  is  more  minutely  de- 
fined. Its  greatness  is  to  be  estimated  by  the  sublimity  of 
the  language  in  which  it  is  introduced. 

"  5.  Thus  says  God,"  Jehovah, who  created  the  heavens  and  stretched 
them  out;  who  spread  out  the  earth  and  all  that  springs  from  it;  who 
gives  health  to  its  population  and  life  to  them  that  walk  on  it;  6.  .1, 
Jehovah,  have  called  thee  in  righteousness  and  will  hold  thy  hand, 

»  Delitzsch,  lesaia,  p.  414.     Oehler,  Old  Test.  TheoL,  vol.  ii.  p.  899. 

a  Isa.  xlii.  1-6. 

3  Matt.  xii.  18;  xvii.  5.    Phil.  ii.  7.    Matt.  iii.  17;  xvii.  .5.    Eph.  i.  8.    Isa.  v.  1, 

*  "Law,"  Hebrew,  Mishpat.  Even  Gescnius  remark.s  that  the  sense  in  which  the 
word  is  to  be  taken  is  shewn  by  ver.  4  and  chap.  Ii.  4,  addin;,'  tliat  it  moans  "  the  law 
of  God,  the  religion  of  Jehovah."  Jesaia,  vol.  ii.  p.  60.  Mishi)at  comes  from  the 
root  "  to  judge."  '  Same  word  as  "  break  oflf."  «  Literally,  "islands." 

">  His  "  Torah,"  his  teaching  of  the  law  of  God. 

8  Literally,  "  The  God,"  the  true  God,  in  contrast  to  idi)ls«. 


312  THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL. 

and  will  keep  thee  (in  My  care),  and  give  thee  for  a  covenant  of  the 
people,'  for  a  light  of  the  nations;  7.  to  open  blind  eyes,  to  bring  out 
prisoners  from  the  dungeon,  and  those  that  sit  in  darkness  from  the 
prison  houses."  '^ 

To  this  announcement  respecting  the  Servant  of  Jeho- 
vah, the  prophet  hastens  to  add  that  Jehovah^  who  has 
been  silent  so  long,  will  speedily  go  forth  against  the  op- 
pressor of  His  people,  and  when  they  are  freed,  will  lead 
them  back  to  their  own  land  amidst  the  rejoicings  of 
mankind. 

**  8.  I  am  Jehovah,  that  is  My  name,  and  My  glory  will  I  not  give  to 
another,  neither  My  praise  to  graven  images.  9.  Behold,  the  first 
things  (I  foretold)  are  come  to  pass  :  ^  I  now  announce  what  is  new  : 
before  it  springs  forth  *  I  tell  you  of  it. 

"  10.  Sing  to  Jehovah  a  new  song  ;  His  praise  from  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  ye  that  go  down  to  the  sea,*  and  all  that  sail  upon  its  waters  ;  ® 
its  coasts  and  islands,  and  all  that  dwell  in  them.  11.  Let  the  wilder- 
ness (pasture  land)  and  its  settled  villages  lift  up  their  voice,  and  the 
encampments  that  Kedar  ^  inhabits.  Let  the  inhabitants  of  the  rock 
city — Sela  ^ — shout  for  joy,  let  them  rejoice  aloud  from  the  top  of  the 
mountains.  13.  Let  men  give  glory  to  Jehovah,  and  proclaim  Ilis 
praise  in  the  islands.  13.  Jehovah  will  go  forth  as  a  mighty  warrior ; 
He  will  rouse  Himself  (against  the  enemies  of  His  people),  like  a  man 
of  (many)  wars  :  He  will  shout,  yea  roar  (the  cry  of  battle) ;  He  will 
shew  Himself  a  Hero  against  His  foes." 

J  The  mediator  of  a  covenant  between  Jehovah  and  Israel.  See  for  similar  expres- 
sions, Isa.  xlix.  6;  Mai.  iv,  2;  John  xi.  25.  The  covenant  is  that  promised  in  Jer. 
xxxi.  31-34. 

2  Dungeons  were,  thus,  underground,  and  without  light.  So  it  was  iu  the  case  of 
Jeremiah— shut  up  in  a  subterranean  cistern.     Isa.  xlii.  7-13. 

3  The  career  of  Cyrus  as  world-conqueror,  etc. 

*  The  figure  is  from  the  budding  of  a  tree. 

*  From  the  hills  on  which  Judah  lived. 

«  Literally,  "  its  fulness."  Cheyne  and  others  apply  the  phrase  to  the  fish,  but  this 
is  quite  out  of  keeping  with  the  context. 

T  Kedar,  "  living  in  tents,"  as  distinguished  from  the  towns  of  the  settled  Arabs ;  a 
contrast  still  maintained  in  the  East. 

8  Or,  Pctra. 


THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL.  313 

Jehovah  Himself  tells  us  why  He  will  thus  make  bare 
His  mighty  arm. 

"14.  I  have  long  held  My  peace,'  I  have  been  still  and  restrained 
Myself.  But,  now,  I  will  raise  the  battle-cry,  loud  as  that  of  a  woman 
in  her  trouble  ;  I  will,  at  once,  breathe  thick  (in  My  fury)  and  snort 
(in  My  burning  indignation).  15.  I  will  wither  the  mountains  and 
hills,  and  dry  up  all  their  herbage  (with  the  fiery  breath  of  My  wrath). 
1  will  turn  streams  to  dry  land  (by  it),  and  dry  up  the  pools  of  water 
(with  its  scorching  heat).  IG.  And  (having  freed  My  people  from  the 
oppressor)  I  will  lead  them  as  one  leads  the  blind,  by  a  way  which  they 
knew  not  :  I  will  bring  them  by  paths  they  have  not  known  :  I  will 
make  the  night  (of  the  trackless  desert)  light  before  them,"  and  rough 
places  smooth  (as  the  Mishor  ^).  These  words  I  will  perform  ;  I  will 
not  fail." 

Awed  by  this,  and  smitten  by  the  hand  of  God,  the 
heathen  will  be  kept  from  impeding  the  return  of  His 
people. 

"17.  They  shall  shrink  back  ;  they  shall  be  ashamed  that  trust  in 
graven  images,  tliat  say  to  the  molten  images,  'Ye  are  our  gods.'" 

Israel  is  now  addressed.  Though  thus  to  be  freed  by 
the  hand  of  Jehovah,  it  had  no  claim  to  be  so  from  any 
merits  of  its  own.  Called  to  be  the  servant  of  Jehovah,  it 
had  been  ^*  unprofitable,"  and  the  Captivity,  with  all  its 
sorrows,  had  been  punishment  divinely  inflicted  for  long- 
continued  sin.  The  same  thought  is  repeated  by  Ezekiel, 
in  the  words,  ^''I  do  not  this  for  your  sakes,  0  house  of 
Israel,  but  for  My  holy  name's  sake,  which  ye  have  pro- 
faned among  the  heathen,  whither  ye  went.'''  Another 
*^  Servant "  must  take  the  place  of  one  so  deaf  and  blind  to 

J  Isa.  xlii.  14-17. 

2  Their  ignorance  of  the  way  was  like  the  darkness  of  one  blind.  The  desert  is 
often  spoken  of  as  dark,  in  this  sense.  Isa.  xlv.  It).  Jcr.  ii.  C,  31.  Job  xii.  25; 
xviii.  18  ;  xxx.  3. 

8  Vol.  ii.  p.  419.  4  Ezek.  xxxvi.  22,  :«,  etc. 


314  THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL. 

the  voice  and  wonders  of  Jehovah  as  Israel  had  been,  and 
carry  out  His  work  ! 

''  18.  Hear,  ye  deaf,'  and  look,  ye  blind,  that  ye  may  see.  19.  Who 
is  blind,  but  (Israel),  My  servant  ?  or  deaf  as  he— My  messenger  whom 
I  sent  ?  Who  is  blind  as  he  who  was  trusted  by  God  ;  ^  or  as  Je- 
hovah's servant  !  30.  Thou  hast  seen  much,  yet  hast  not  observed  it ; 
thou  hast  opened  thine  ears,  but  hast  not  paid  heed.  21.  Jehovah  was 
pleased,  for  His  righteousness'  sake,  to  give  (thee)  great  and  glorious 
teaching  of  His  Law  (through  the  prophets).  22.  Yet  (instead  of  the 
good  it  should  have  brought),  Israel  is  (to-day)  a  people  robbed  and 
spoiled  ;  shut  up  in  dungeons,  hid  in  prisons,  a  prey,  without  a 
deliverer  ;  a  spoil,  with  no  one  to  say  '  give  back.'  23.  Who  among 
you  will  listen  to  this  and  attend,  and  give  heed  for  time  to  come  ? 
24.  Who  was  it  that  gave  Jacob  for  a  spoil,  and  Israel  to  robbers  ? 
Was  it  not  Jehovah,  against  whom  we  have  sinned  ?  in  whose  ways 
Israel  would  not  walk,  and  whose  law  he  would  not  obey  ?  25.  It  was 
for  this  He  poured  the  fury  of  His  anger  on  him,  and  the  miseries  of 
war.  These  set  him  on  flames  round  about,  but  he  did  not  recognize 
(God's  hand);  they  burned  amidst  his  sons,  yet  he  laid  it  not  to  heart." 

Yet  Israel,  though  thus  blind  and  deaf,  and  to  a  great 
extent  impenitent,  will  be  redeemed  and  re-established 
gloriously,  since  Jehovah  lias  chosen  the  nation  and  loves 
it. 

**XLIII.  1.  Yet,  now,  thus  says  Jehovah,  who  created  thee,  O 
Jacob,  and  He  that  formed  thee,  0  Israel  ;  Fear  not,  for  I  will  redeem 
thee,3  I  have  called  thee  by  thy  name— 'My  people  ;'  thou  art  Mine. 
2.  When  thou  passest  through  the  waters,  I  shall  be  with  thee,  and 
through  the  rivers,  they  shall  not  overflow  thee  ;  when  thou  walkest 
through  the  fire,  thou  shalt  not  be  burned,  neither  shall  the  flame 
kindle  upon  thee  !  3.  For  I,  Jehovah,  am  thy  God  ;  I,  the  Holy  One 
of  Israel,  am  thy  Saviour.  I  give  Egypt  for  thy  ransom,  Ethiopia  and 
Seba  in  thy  stead.*     4.  Because  thou  art  so  dear  in  My  sight,  so  prized, 

*  Isa.  xlii.  18-25  ;  xliii.  1-4.  '  Friend  of  God.    Gesenius.    Knobel. 

>  Literally,  "  I  liave  redeemed  thee."  The  redemption  was  determined,  but  not 
yet  carried  out. 

*  This  prophecy  was  literally  fulfilled.  Cambyses  carried  out  the  conquest  of 
Egypt  which  Cyrus  had  planned,  and  extended  tlie  Persian  conquests  far  and  near. 


THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL.  315 

SO  precious  to  Me,  I  will  give  (less  valued)  men '  in  thy  stead,  and 
peoples  for  thy  life. 

"  5.  Fear  not,^  for  I  am  with  thee  ;  I  will  bring  thy  sons  from  the 
sun-rising  and  gather  thee  from  the  West.  6.  I  will  say  to  the  North, 
'Give  up  ;'  and  to  the  South,  'Keep  not  back,'  bring  My  sons  from 
far,  and  my  daughters  from  the  end  of  the  earth  ; '  7.  every  one  who 
is  called  by  My  name,  and  whom  I  have  created  for  My  glory,  whom 
I  have  formed  and  prepared  (for  that  end)." 

The  prophet  is  next  addressed. 

"8.  Bring  forth  the  blind  people  that  have  eyes  (and  do  not  use 
them),  and  the  deaf  who  have  ears  (but  will  not  hear).  (Bring  them  to 
an  open  space,  where  the  controversy  between  the  true  God  and  the 
idols  may  be  settled  before  the  heathen  nations,  who  also  are  to 
assemble  there).  9.  Ye  heathen  nations,  all  of  you,  assemble,  and  let 
the  peoples  gather  together  !  Who  among  you  (of  your  prophets),  can 
announce  such  things,  and  tell  us  their  predictions  delivered  in  the 
past  (and  now  proved  true)?  Let  them  produce  their  witnesses,  that 
they  may  be  vindicated,  and  let  these  hear  and  say — It  is  the  truth. 
10.  Ye  (men  of  Israel)  who  fear  My  name,  are  My  witnesses,  sayw 
Jehovah,  ye  are  My  servant,  whom  I  have  chosen;  that  ye  may  acknow- 
ledge and  believe  Me,  and  understand  that  I  am  He,  (and  that)  before 
Me  no  God  was  formed,  and  after  Me  there  shall  be  none.  11.  I — I, 
am  Jehovah,  and  besides  Me  there  is  no  Saviour.  12.  I — I  (alone) 
have  foretold  (what  is  to  happen)  and  have  saved  (you),  and  have 
revealed  beforehand  (that  I  would  do  so)  ;  it  was  no  strange  god  among 
you  that  did  this  ;  ye  are  My  witnesses,  says  Jehovah,  that  I  am, 
(thus,  the  only  true)  God.  13.  In  the  future,  also,  I  am  He,  and  no 
one  can  deliver  out  of  My  hand.     I  work  and  who  can  hinder  Me  ?  " 

Seba,  "  The  Men,"  is  said  by  Josephus  to  be  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Meroe,  shut  in, 
like  an  island,  by  branches  of  the  Nile  ;  and  this  identification  is  generally  accepted 
as  correct.  It  thus  formed  part  of  tlie  present  Nubia,  immediately  north  of  Kordof  an, 
Sennaar,  and  Abyssinia  :  a  position  which,  in  antiquity,  lay  in  the  direct  caravan- 
route  between  Arabia  and  India  on  the  one  hand,  and  Africa  on  the  other,  and 
brought  wealth  and  prosperity  to  the  country  at  large,  especially  to  the  towns. 
There  are  only  two  notices  of  Seba  in  Scripture  ;  the  one  stating  that  its  people  were 
famous  for  their  stature,  and  the  other  speaking  of  them  as  strong  and  brave,  "a 
people  terrible  from  of  old,"  who  broke  in  pieces  all  who  opposed  them,  and  whose 
land  was  rich  in  streams.  Herodotus  describes  them,  very  similarly,  as  the  tallest 
and  handsomest  of  men,  clioosing  their  king  for  his  stature  and  strength,  and  living 
often  to  the  age  of  a  hundred  and  twenty.  i  Jer.  xxxii.  20. 

*  Isa.  xliii.  5-13.  '  !Su  widely  scattered  were  the  Jews  even  then. 


316  THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL. 

The  prophet  now  introduces  a  renewed  prediction  of  the 
destruction  of  Babylon. 

**  14.  Thus  says  Jehovah,  your  Redeemer,'  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  : 
For  your  sakes  have  I  sent  (the  foe)  to  Babylon,  and  will  drive  out,'^ 
(as  fugitives),  all  its  (mixed)  population,  and  the  Chaldaeans  (them- 
selves), to  the  ships,  hitherto  their  pride.'  15.  I,  Jehovah,  your  Holy 
One,  the  Creator  of  Israel,  your  King,  (will  do  it)  !  " 

The  deliverance  from  Egypt  is  introduced  as  a  pledge  for 
the  fulfilment  of  all  this. 

"  16.  Thus  says  Jehovah,  who  makes  a  road  through  the  sea,  and  a 
path  through  the  mighty  waters  :  17.  who  leads  forth  (to  their  doom) 
chariot  and  horse,  army  and  power  :  *  they  lie  down  together  (at  His 
word),  they  shall  not  rise  ;  they  are  extinguished  ;  they  are  quenched 
like  the  wick  of  a  lamp  ! 

1  Or  Goel.    See  p.  306.    Isa.  xliii.  14^17. 

2  Literally,  "down,"  Babylon  being  figured  as  a  proud  and  lofty  city. 

3  Herodotus,  i.  194,  describes  the  vessels  of  the  Babylonians,  and  the  ships  of  Dr  are 
often  mentioned  in  early  inscriptions.  See  vol.  i.  p.  248.  The  merchandise  of  Arabia 
was  carried  to  Babylon  in  ships.— Strabo,  xvi.  4,  §  18.  The  later  inscriptions  shew 
that  numerous  vessels  were  always  to  be  found  at  the  mouth  of  the  Euphrates,  and 
that  they  constantly  sailed  over  the  Persian  Gulf.  It  is  uncertain  whether  they 
ventured  beyond  its  head-lands,  into  the  open  Indian  Ocean  :  but  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  by  some  means  or  other  they  obtained  Indian  commodities,  which  would 
come  most  readily  by  this  sea-route.  The  teak  found  in  their  buildings,  the  ivory  and 
ebony  which  they  almost  certainly  used,  the  cinnamon  and  the  cotton  in  tlie  large 
quantities  which  they  consumed,  can  only  have  come  from  the  peninsula  of  Hin- 
dustan, and  cannot  be  supposed  to  have  travelled  by  the  circuitous  route  of  Cabul 
and  Bactria.  Arabian  spices  were  conveyed  by  the  Gerrhaeans,  in  their  ships,  to 
Babylon  itself,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  rest  of  the  Gulf  trade  was  chiefly  in  their 
hands.  Perfumes  of  all  kinds,  pearls,  wood  for  shipbuilding,  walking-sticks,  cotton, 
gems,  gold,  and  Indian  fabrics,  flowed  into  the  Chaldtean  capital  from  the  sea,  being 
mostly  brought  to  it  up  the  Euphrates  in  ships,  and  deposited  on  the  quays  at  the 
merchants'  doors,  ^schylus  calls  the  Babylonians  who  served  in  the  army  of 
Xerxes,  "navigators  of  ships."  (JEschyl.,  Pers.,  11.  52-55.)  Commercial  dealings 
among  the  dwellers  in  the  city,  on  a  most  extensive  scale,  are  disclosed  by  the  Egibi 
tablets  (Tran-.^ar/wn«  of  the  Sociehj  of  Biblical  Archifoloqy,  vol.  vii.  pp.  1-78); 
"  spice-merchants  "  appear  among  the  witnesses  to'deeds.  (Records  of  the  Past,  vol. 
xi.  p.  94.)  Their  own  records  and  the  accounts  of  the  Greeks  are  thus  in  the  com- 
pletest  agreement  with  the  prophet  when  he  describes  Babylon  as  "a  land  of  traflick 
...  a  city  of  merchants."— Rawlinson,  in  Clergyman's  Magazine,  1883,  p.  105. 
See  also  Riehm's  Handwoi-terbuch,  p.  248. 

*  An  allusion  to  the  overthrow  of  Pharaoh  in  the  Red  Sea. 


THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL.  317 

*'  18.  (Yet  ye  need  not)  call  to  mind  former  things,'  nor  ponder  those 
of  the  past  ;  19.  behold,  I  am  about  to  do  what  is  new  ;  it  is  even  now 
budding  forth,  lo,  ye  shall  sec  it  !  I  will  make  a  road  through  the 
waste,  and  streams  in  the  desert.  30.  Even  the  beast  of  the  field  will 
praise  Me,  the  thirsty  jackals  and  the  ostriches,  because  I  give  waters 
in  the  waste  and  streams  in  the  desert,  for  drink  to  My  people,  My 
chosen,  21.  the  people  whom  I  have  formed  for  Myself  ;  who  (also, 
like  these  ci-eatures)  shall  declare  My  praise,  (for  such  supplies  in  such 
a  region)." 

Once  more  it  is  proclaimed  that  all  this  is  of  God's  free 
grace,  for  the  honour  of  His  great  name  ,-  not  for  any 
merit  or  painful  service  rendered  by  Israel. 

"22.  (I  do  this)  though  thou  hast  not  called  upon  Me,  0  Jacob,  much 
less  wearied  thyself,''  (in  My  service,)  0  Israel.  23.  Thou  hast  not 
brought  Me  (in  Babylon,  as  thou  didst  formerly  in  Judah)  the  sheep  of 
thy  burnt  offerings,  neither  hast  thou  honoured  Me  with  thy  other  sac- 
rifices, nor  have  I  burdened  thee  with  food-offerings,  nor  wearied  thee 
with  (burning)  incense.  24.  Thou  hast  not  bought  for  Me,  with  silver, 
the  costly  fragrant  Arabian  reed,  (for  holy  oil),^  and  thou  hast  not 
r«ated  Me  with  the  fat  of  thy  sacrifices.  But  thou  hast  tired  Me  out  * 
with  thy  sins,  thou  hast  wearied  Me  with  thine  iniquities  ! 

"25.  I,  I  alone,  blot  out  thy  transgressions,  for  My  own  sake,  and 
will  remember  thy  sins  no  longer.  26.  (Yet  if  thou  thinkest  thou  hast 
anything  to  urge  for  thyself)  put  Me  in  remembrance  (of  it) ;  let  us  try 
the  matter  together;  state  what  thou  canst,  to  justify  thyself.  27. 
(But  thou  canst  say  nothing,  for  even)  thy  first  father  (Jacob)  sinned, 
and  they  that  mediated  ^  (between  Me  and  thee — thy  prophets  and 
priests) — have  been  faithless  to  Me.  28.  For  this  cause  have  I  dishon- 
oured thy  holy  princes,  (the  high  priests),®  and  have  given  over  Jacob 
to  ruin,^  and  Israel  to  reproach." 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  Jehovah,  for  His  love's  sake, 

>  Isa.  xliii.  18-28. 

2  The  minute  and  wearisome  observances  of  the  ceremonial  law— its  sacrifices,  of- 
ferings, and  Levitical  rites,  could  not  be  observed  in  Babylon. 

3  Exod.  XXX.  23.    Jer.  vi.  20.  *  Literally,  "  loaded  Me  like  a  slave." 
*  Literally,  "mediators."  «  1  Chron.  xxiv.  5.    Jer.  Hi.  24. 

^  Literally,  have  "  put  him  under  My  ban,"  devoted  him  to  destruction.  See  vol. 
ii.  p.  447,  note. 


318  THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL. 

and  for  His  honour,^  will  blot  out  the  recollection  of  the 
sins  of  His  people,  and  load  them  with  blessing. 

"XLIV.  1.  Yet  now  hear,^  0  Jacob,  My  servant,  and  Israel,  whom 
I  have  chosen.  2.  Thus  says  Jehovah,  thy  Creator,  that  formed  thee 
from  the  womb,  who  is  thy  Helper :  Fear  not,  0  Jacob,  My  servant, 
and  thou,  Jesurun,^  whom  I  have  chosen.  3.  Fori  will  pour  out  water 
for  the  thirsty,  and  streams  over  the  parched  land ;  I  will  pour  out  My 
Spirit  on  thy  seed,  and  My  blessing  upon  thy  offspring.  4.  And  they 
will  spring  up  as  grass  beside  flowing  waters,''  and  as  poplars  by  water- 
courses. 5.  One  will  say,  'I  am  Jehovah's;'  another  will  joyfully 
praise  the  name  of  Jacob ;  and  a  third  will  make  the  mark  of  Jehovah 
on  his  hand,*  and  boast  of  Israel  as  a  name  of  honour."  * 

The  intense  hatred  of  the  prophet  to  the  idolatry  which 
had  so  depraved  his  nation  under  Manasseh  and  Ahaz,  and 
survived  only  too  vigorously  even  in  Babylon/  now  breaks 
out  again  in  a  vivid  contrast  of  the  greatness  of  Jehovah 
as  compared  with  the  gods  of  the  heathen.  There  must 
have  been  great  danger  of  the  Hebrews  finally  apostatizing 
from  their  national  faith^  to  lead  to  such  denunciations  of 
idols.  Heathenism  surrounds  our  countrymen  in  India  as 
much  as  it  did  the  Jews  either  in  Judaea  or  on  the  Chebar, 
but  it  would  be  strange  to  an  Anglo-Indian  audience,  firm 
in  their  belief  in  one  God,  if  their  preachers  dwelt  on  the 
risk  of  their  becoming  idolaters,  as  the  prophets  felt  neces- 
sary in  the  case  of  their  brethren  during  the   Captivity. 

1  Isa.  xliii.  4,  25.  2  jga,  xliv.1-5. 

'  A  diminutive  of  endearment  =  "the  worthy  people." 

*  Vulgate.  So,  virtually,  Septuagint.  Rivulets  of  water  are  led  to  the  roots  of 
each  tree  in  a  palm  grove,  or  in  a  garden  that  is  well  watered. 

6  Slaves  bore  the  name  of  their  master,— soldiers,  of  their  leader,— idolaters,  of  their 
god,— branded  or  tattooed  on  their  forehead  or  on  their  hand.  So  it  would  be  done 
towards  Jehovah  by  His  willing  servants.  Eichhom  translates  the  clause,  "  will  im- 
print on  his  hand  '  Sacred  to  Jehovah.'  " 

«  "Soothingly  names  the  name  of  Israel."  Gesenius.  The  verb  means  "to  deck 
with  a  title,"  "  to  call  by  an  honourable  name." 

»  See  Ezek.  passim. 


THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL.  319 

Jehovah,  we  are  again  told,  has  long  since  predicted  the 
deliverance  of  His  people,  and  will  prove  His  divinity  by 
the  fulfilment  of  His  Word,  while  the  idols  have  foretold 
or  carried  out  nothing. 

"  6.  Thus  says  Jehovah,'  the  King  of  Israel,  and  his  Redeemer,'  Je- 
hovah of  Hosts:  I  am  the  First  and  the  Last,  and  beside  Me  there  is  no 
god.  7.  Who  foretells  ^  as  I  do,  ever  since  I  founded  this  ancient  peo- 
l>le — let  them  shew  it  and  make  it  plain  ?  and  let  them,  also,  reveal 
the  future,  and  shew  (what  will  come  hereafter)." 

Israel  needs  not  fear  :  Jehovah  designs  good  for  it. 

''8.  Fear  ye  not,  neither  be  alarmed;  have  not  I  long  since  made 
known  to  you  and  declared  (what  was  coming)?  Ye  are  My  witnesses. 
Is  there  a  God  beside  Me  ?  There  is  no  (other)  Rock — (no  other  true 
god);  I  know  of  none." 

While  Israel  can  boast  in  Jehovah,  the  heathen  have  only 
worthless  idols  to  which  to  look. 

"9.  The  makers  of  idols  are  all  of  them  foolish;*  the  things  they 
delight  in  are  worthless  !  they  themselves  must  confess  this,'  for  (these 
images)  neither  see  nor  know,  and  therefore  he  is  put  to  shame  10.  who 
makes  a  god,  or  casts  a  molten  image,  that  is  good  for  nothing  !  11. 
Lo,  all  its  worshippers '  shall  be  ashamed,  for  those  that  make  it  are 
only  mortals.  Let  them  all  assemble  and  stand  up  together  (to  defend 
their  gods);  (but.  if  they  do  so)  they  will  only  tremble  and  be  put  to 
shame  together." 

The  prophet  now  leads  us  into  an  idol  manufactory, 
such  as  then  drove  a  great  trade. 

"13.  The  metal-worker''  sharpens  his  chisel  ;  he  works  with  the 
charcoal"  (of  his  forge)    and  fashions  the  idol  with  hammers,   and 

'  Isa.  xliv.  6-12.  2  Hebrew,  G06l. 

3  Literally,  "  calls  ''—referring  to  the  discourses  of  the  prophets,  as  in  Isa.  xl.  2. 

*  Literally,  "  chaos."  6  Arc  their  witnesses. 

•  Its  fellows.    Haberim  =  associates.  '  Literally,  "  a  cutter  of  iron." 
"  See  lua.  Uv.  16. 


320  THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL. 

finishes  it  by  the  strength  of  liis  arms ;  he  grows  hungry  (at  his  work) 
and  is  exhausted ;  if  he  does  not  drink  water  he  grows  faint. 

'*  13.  The  carpenter'  stretches  out  his  measuring  line;  marks  out 
the  figure  of  the  god  with  his  chalks,  works  out  (the  details)  with 
various  tools,  and  measures  the  proportions  with  his  compasses,  to 
make  it  like  a  human  figure,  so  that,  like  a  comely  man,  it  may  dwell 
in  some  house.'  14.  He  hews  down  cedars,  and  takes  the  ilex  and 
oak ;  he  chooses  for  himself  from  among  the  trees  of  the  wood ;  he 
plants  a  fig  tree^  and  the  rain  nourishes  it,  15.  and  it  serves  for  firing 
to  him,  he  takes  part  of  it  and  warms  himself;  he  kindles  part  and 
bakes  bread  with  it,  and  of  part  he  makes  a  god  and  worships  it:  he 
makes  it  into  an  idol  and  falls  down  before  it  !  16.  The  one  half  he 
has  partly  burnt  in  the  fire,  partly  used  to  make  flesh  ready  to  eat ;  he 
roasts  meat  with  it  and  satisfies  his  hunger,  and  warms  himself,  and 
says,  '  Aha,  I  am  warm,  I  have  enjoyed  the  fire.'  17.  And  the  remain- 
der of  it  he  makes  into  a  god,  his  graven  image,  and  falling  down 
before  it,  prostrates  himself,  and  prays  to  it,  saying,  '  Save  me,  for 
thou  art  my  god  ! ' 

"  18.  They  have  no  sense  or  understanding,  for  their  eyes  are  shut* 
so  that  they  do  not  see,  and  their  heart  is  closed  so  that  they  do  not 
understand.  19.  And  no  one  considers  in  his  heart  or  has  sense  or 
understanding  to  say,  '  I  have  burned  half  of  it  in  the  fire,  and  I  have 
used  its  coals  to  bake  my  bread,  and  I  roasted  flesh  with  it,  and  ate, 
and  shall  I  make  the  other  half  into  an  "  abomination  "  ?  Shall  I  fall 
down  before  a  piece  of  wood  grown  out  of  the  ground  ? '  20.  He  who 
thus  delights  in  what  is  worthless  ^ — as  it  were,  feeding  on  ashes — is 
led  astray  by  his  blinded®  heart,  and  he  cannot  free  himself  from 
his  errors,  or  save  his  life,  or  say,  '  Is  there  not  a  lie  in  my  right 
hand  ? '  " 

Israel  should  reflect  on  these  things,  and  cleave  to  Jeho- 
vah, his  gracious  God  and  Saviour, 

"21.  Think  on  these  things,  0  Jacob,  and  Israel,  for  thou  art  My 
servant.     I  have  proved  thee,  thou  art  My  servant ;  O  Israel,  I  will  not 

1  The  prophet  has  described  the  making  of  an  idol  of  metal  ;  he  now  describes  that 
of  a  wooden  one.    Isa.  xliv.  13-21. 

2  There  was  a  house-god  in  each  family.  The  Teraphim  had  a  human  form,  at 
least  in  some  cases  (1  Sam.  xix.  13-16),  and  so  had  most  idols. 

3  Schrader,  K.A.T.,  2te  Auf.,  p.  411  ;  the  same  word  is  "  fig  "  in  Assyrian. 

4  Literally,  "plastered  over,"  in  this  case  perhaps  "closed  by  fat." 

*  Literally,  '•  to  feed  "  or  "  feast "  ou  "  ashes."  «  Literally,  "  deceived." 


THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL.  321 

forget  thee.  22.  I  have  blotted  out  as  a  thick  cloud  thy  transgressions, 
and  as  the  morning  mist '  thy  sins ;  return  to  Me,  for  I  have  redeemed 
thee.  23.  Sing  out,  0  ye  heavens,  for  Jehovah  has  done  it  !  Shout 
aloud,  ye  valleys  and  caves  of  the  earth;  break  forth  into  jubilee,  ye 
mountains,  thou  forest  and  all  thy  trees,  for  Jehovah  has  redeemed 
Jacob,  and  shewn  Himself  glorious  (in  His  deeds)  towards  Israel." 

The  majesty  of  Jehovah  is  proclaimed,  as  Creator  of 
the  Universe,  and  as  ruling  in  the  kingdom  of  Providence, 
confounding  false  prophets,  confirming  the  words  of  His 
true  messengers,  and  ordaining  Cyrus  to  subdue  the 
heathen,  especially  the  mighty  power  of  Babylon. 

"  24.  Thus  says  Jehovah,  thy  Redeemer.  "^  He  that  formed  thee  from 
the  womb, — I,  Jehovah,  am  He  who  makes  all  things,  that  stretched 
forth  the  heavens  alone,  and  spread  abroad  the  earth  by  Myself;  25. 
that  brings  to  nothing  the  signs  of  lying  babblers,  and  makes  foolish 
the  soothsayers;  that  makes  'the  wise'  draw  back  ashamed,  and 
turns  their  pretended  wisdom  to  folly:  20.  that  makes  the  word  of 
His  servant  stand,  and  fulfils  the  predictions  of  His  messengers;  ^  that 
says  of  Jerusalem,  '  It  shall  be  once  more  inhabited,'  and  of  the  cities 
of  Judah,  *  They  will  be  rebuilt,  I  will  restore  their  ruins ; '  27.  that 
says  to  the  depths  of  the  waters,  '  Be  dried  up,  I  will  dry  up  thy 
streams ; '  *  28.  that  says  of  Cyrus,  ^  '  He  is  My  shepherd  who  will  per- 
form all  My  pleasure,'  ®  and  of  Jerusalem,  '  Let  her  be  rebuilt,'  and  of 
tlie  temple,  '  Let  thy  foundations  be  laid.' ''  ^ 

"  XLV.  1.  Thus  says  Jehovah  to  His  anointed  ^  (His  Messiah),  to 
Cyrus,  whose  right  hand  I  hold,  that  nations  may  be  subdued  before 

1  Ho8.  vi.  4.    Isa.  xliv.  22-28.  ^  Hebrew,  GOel.  ^  The  prophets. 

*  The  Euphrates  is  here  regarded  as  a  sea,  a?  the  Nile  in  other  passages.  Cyrns  is 
said  to  have  drained  ofE  the  great  river  into  another  channel,  so  that  the  waters  sank 
to  a  foot  deep,  and  his  soldiers  could  go  through  it  on  foot.    (But  see  p.  396.) 

5  "  Cyrus  "  was  formerly  thought  to  mean  "•  the  Sun,"  but  it  is  really  identical  with 
the  name  of  the  river  Kur.  On  the  monuments  it  is  Kuril.  See  Delitzsch,  Jesaia, 
2tc  Auf.,  pp.  26.5,  470.  6  Qr  "  work." 

'  Jo;<ephus  says,  "  Now  this  became  known  to  Cyrus  by  his  reading  the  book  of 
his  prophecy  which  Esaias  left  behind  him,  for  thi?  man  said,  that  God  had  spoken 
thus  to  him  in  secret  :  '  My  will  is  that  Cyrus,'  etc.  This  was  prophesied  by  Esaias 
one  hundred  and  forty  years  before  the  demolition  of  the  temple.  Wiien,  therefore, 
Cyrus  had  read  this,  and  marvelled  at  the  Divine  power,  an  earnest  impulse  and  am- 
bition seized  upon  him  to  fulfil  what  was  so  written."    Jos.,  Ant..,  XI.  i.  2. 

®  Isa.  xlv.  1. 

VOL.  VI.-21 


322  THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL. 

him,  and  that  T  may  imgird  the  loins  of  kings,'  and  that  open  before 
him  the  wide  double  gates  (of  cities),  and  that  the  barriers  (of  towns) 
may  not  be  shut  (against  him),  2.  I  will  go  before  thee  and  make  the 
hilly  ground  smooth ;  two-leaved  gates  of  brass  will  I  break  in  pieces, 
and  their  bars  of  iron  will  I  cut  in  sunder,*  3.  and  I  will  give  thee  the 
treasures  concealed  in  darkness,  and  the  wealth  of  secret  hiding  places,^ 
that  thou  mayest  know  that  I,  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  am  He  who 
called  thee  by  thy  name.  4.  For  the  sake  of  Jacob  My  servant,  and 
Israel  My  chosen,  (not  for  thine  own  sake),  have  I  called  thee  by  thy 
name;  I  have  given  thee  the  honourable  title  (of  'My  shepherd'), 
though  thou  didst  not  know  Me. 

"  5.  I  am  Jehovah  and  there  is  none  else;  there  is  no  God  beside  Me; 
I  girded  thee  (for  the  victorious  performance  of  My  will),  though  thou 
didst  not  know  Me,  6.  that  all  men  may  know,  from  the  rising  of  the 
sun  even  to  the  west,  that  there  is  none  beside  Me.  I  am  Jehovah, 
and  there  is  none  else,  7.  the  Former  of  light  and  the  Creator  of  dark- 
ness ;  the  source  of  good  and  the  dispenser  of  trouble  (to  man) ;  I, 
Jehovah,  am  He  who  does  all  this. 

"  8.  Drop  down  (your  showers),  ye  heavens,  from  above,  and  let  the 
skies  pour  down  righteousness ;  let  the  earth  open  (her  bosom),  let  sal- 
vation blossom  forth,  and  righteousness  spring  up  with  it  !  I,  Jeho- 
vah, have  created  it." 

But  even  in  Israel,  though  so  wondrously  favoured,  there 
were  many  who  murmured  at  the  long  delay  in  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  Divine  j^romises.  The  folly  and  danger  of 
such  an  attitude  of  heart  is  vividly  depicted. 

"  9.  Woe  to  him  who  strives  with  his  Creator — (him),  a  poor  potsherd 
amidst  the  (million)  potsherds  of  the  earth  !  *  Shall  the  clay  say  to 
him  that  shapes  it,  '  What  makest  thou  ? '  Shall  thy  work  say,  '  He 
has  no  hands '  ?  10.  Woe  to  him  who  says  to  his  father,  *  What 
begettest  thou  ?'  or  to  his  mother,  'What  bringest  thou  forth  ?'  11. 
Thus  says  Jehovah,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  and  his  Maker,  concerning 

'  Make  them  unfit  to  meet  Cyrus  in  war. 

2  The  gates  and  bars  of  Babylon  were  of  brass  and  iron.  Herod.,  i.  179.  Isa, 
xlv.  2-11. 

3  Enormous  treasures  were  stored  in  the  dark  recesses  of  temples  and  in  the  nnder- 
ground  vaults  of  the  rich.  Some  of  the  greatest  hoards  remained  untouched  till  they 
were  plundered  by  Darius.     Herod.,  i.  187. 

4  An  allusion  to  man  being  made  from  the  earth. 


THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL.  323 

things  to  come:  Ask  Me,  (not  your  idols  or  false  prophets),  for  My 
sons,  and  for  the  work  of  My  hands  leave  Me  to  care.  12.  I  made  the 
earth,  and  created  man  on  it.*  My  hands  stretched  out  the  heavens 
and  I  lay  My  commands  on  all  their  host.  13.  I  have  raised  up  him, 
(Cyrus),  in  righteousness,  and  I  will  smooth  all  his  paths  before  him ; 
he  shall  build  My  city,  and  he  shall  set  free  My  banished  ones,  without 
a  (redemption)  price  and  without  a  reward,  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts." 

Egypt,  Ethiopia,  and  the  Sabaeans,  subdued  by  Cyrus, 
and  led  off  by  him  triumphantly  in  chains  to  Asia,  will  see 
the  wondrous  deliverance  vouchsafed  to  Israel,  and  will  en- 
treat to  be  united  with  them,  feeling  that  Jehovah  alone 
is  the  true  God. 

"14.  Thus  says  Jehovah:  The  wealth  of  Egypt  and  the  gains  of 
Ethiopia,  and  the  tall  Sabaeans,  will  come  over  to  thee  and  become 
thine ;  ^  they  will  follow  behind  thee ;  they  will  go  in  chains  and  fall 
before  thee,  and  pay  reverence  to  thee,  saying,  '  God  is  with  thee ; 
there  is  none  else;  no  God  beside.' 

"  15.  Verily  thou  art  a  God  who  hidest  thy  purposes;  (but  once  re- 
vealed, they  shew  thee),  O  God  of  Israel,  to  be  (indeed)  a  Saviour! ' 

"  16.  Ashamed  and  confounded  are  they  all  ;  turned  away  in  con- 
fusion are  the  makers  of  idols.  17.  But  Israel  shall  be  saved  by  Jeho- 
vah, with  an  everlasting  salvation  :  ye  will  no  more  be  ashamed  or 
confounded  for  ever.  18.  For  thus  says  Jehovah  that  created  the 
heavens — He  is  the  true  God — that  made  and  perfected  the  earth :  He 
it  was  who  established  it,  forming  it  not  to  be  waste,  but  to  be  in- 
habited. I  am  Jehovah,  and  there  is  none  else.  19.  I  have  not  spoken 
(by  My  prophets)  in  secret,  (but  openly);  not  in  some  part  of  the  land 
of  darkness:  <  I  have  not  used  empty  words  to  the  house  of  Jacob  when 
I  said,  'Seek  Me;'*  I,  Jehovah,  speak  the  truth,  I  foretell  what  will 
surely  happen." 

»  Isa.  xlv.  12-19. 

2  "  Thy  slaves."  Cyrus  transferred  the  Egyptians  taken  in  his  battles  with 
Crcepu.s,  to  other  lands.    On  the  Sabaeans,  see  vol.  i.  p.  312. 

3  Exclamation  of  the  prophet. 

*  Perhaps  an  allusion  to  the  heathen  claim  to  speak  by  the  dead  from  Sheol ;  per- 
haps to  the  dark  and  uninhabited  wilderness.  Eichhorn  translates  it,  "  dark  corners 
of  the  earth.'" 

6  Cheyne's  translation,  "  Seek  me  as  chaos,"  is  unintelligible.  I  have  adopted  the 
rendering  of  Luther  and  De  Wette.  Eichhorn  and  Delitzsch  render  it  "  in  the 
deserts  ;  "  Ewakl,  "  seek  ye  me  in  vain,"  as  iu  A.  V. 


324  THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL. 

Jehovah  once  more  appeals  to  the  heathen  themselves  to 
judge  His  claims  compared  with  those  of  idols. 

"  20.  Assemble  yourselves  and  come;  draw  near  together,  ye  escaped 
of  nations.'  They  have  no  understanding  that  set  up  the  wood  of 
their  image,  and  pray  to  a  god  that  cannot  save.  21.  Make  known 
and  bring  forward  your  cause  ;'^  let  them  (the  defenders  of  the  idols) 
consult  together.  Who  has  declared  this  (great  deliverance)  from  of 
old?  Who  has  made  it  known  in  the  past?  Was  it  not  I,  Jehovah? 
There  is  no  God  else,  beside  Me;  a  just  God  and  a  Saviour;  there  is 
none  beside  Me!  22.  Turn  ye  to  Me  and  be  ye,  (also),  saved,  all  ye 
ends  of  the  earth,  for  I  am  God  and  there  is  none  elsel 

"23.  By  Myself  have  I  sworn;  from  My  mouth  that  speaks  truth  has 
gone  forth  the  word,  and  it  shall  not  be  reversed :  That  unto  Me  every 
knee  shall  bow  and  every  tongue  swear  (homage).  24.  In  Jehovah 
alone,  shall  it  be  said,  are  righteousness  and  might.  To  Him  shall 
all  come,  and  all  shall  be  ashamed,  who  raged  against  Him.  25.  In 
Jehovah  shall  all  the  seed  of  Israel  be  justified  and  glory." 

A  new  discourse  now  begins.  The  gods  of  Babylon  will 
be  overthrown  and  carried  off  in  triumph.  Israel  may  well 
trust  a  God  so  faithful,  and  the  idol  worshippers  ponder 
His  mighty  acts  and  seek  a  share  in  His  favour. 

"XLVI.  1.  Bel  sinks  down/  Nebo  falls"  prostrate;^  their  images 
are  laid  on  the  beasts  of   burden  and  the  draught-oxen;  your  gods, 

1  Primarily,  the  fugitives  of  the  various  nations  who  had  fled  before  Cyrus.  In  its 
higher  aspect,  as  a  prediction  of  the  future  of  the  Church  in  all  ages,  it  may  also  well 
refer  to  the  remnant  of  the  heathen  who  escape  the  final  judgments  of  God  on  the 
earth.    See  ver.  23.    Isa.  xlv.  20-25;  xlvi.  1. 

2  Arguments  in  favour  of  their  idols. 

3  Bel  =  Baal.    See  vol.  i.  p.  218 ;  vol.  v.  p.  367. 

*  Nebo,  with  Merodach  and  Bel,  were  the  chief  gods  of  Babylon.  So  great  indeed 
was  Nebo,  that  nearly  all  the  kings  have  his  name  incorporated  with  their  own- 
as  Nabopolassar,  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  Nabonidus.  Nebuchadnezzar  calls  himself 
"  the  beloved  of  Nebo,  him  who  rules  over  the  armies  of  heaven  and  earth."  This 
god  is  also  spoken  of  as  "  the  chief  god,""  the  orderer  of  the  world,  the  god  of  knowl- 
edge, of  wisdom,  of  oaths,  the  creator  of  friendship,  the  author  of  writing,  and  the 
"  Scribe  of  the  Universe."    Schrader,  on  Isa.  xlvi.  1. 

5  The  gods  of  Babylon,  with  the  peoples  who  worshipped  them,  submitted  to  Cyrus, 
but  he  did  not  injure  the  idols,  or  shew  them  any  dishonour  ;  taking  pains,  from  the 
first,  for  policy,  to  honour  them  in  all  ways,  and  profess  himself  their  humble  wor- 
shipper, paying  homage  to  them,  as  will  be  shewn  hereafter,  from  the  inscriptions. 


THE    FIFTH    (iOSPEL.  325 

wliicli  ye  carry  about,  (0  Babylonians),  arc  laden  on  the  beasts;  they 
are  a  heavy  load  to  the  weary  creatures!  2.  The  idols  fall  prostrate,' 
they  sink  down  ^  together,  they  cannot  rescue  their  images — the  load 
of  the  beasts, — but  are  gone  ^  into  captivity! 

"  3.  Hearken  unto  Me,  0  house  of  Jacob  and  all  the  remnant  of  the 
house  of  Israel,  ye  who  have  been  a  burden  (to  Me)  from  your  birth,* 
4.  and  have  been  caressed  by  Me  since  your  first  hour — I  am  still  the 
same  even  to  your  old  age  (in  the  distant  future),  for  even  to  your  gray 
hairs  I  will  carry  (you) ;  I  have  done  it  (in  the  past)  and  will  still  bear 
you  (in  days  to  come):  I  will  carry  you  and  deliver  you. 

"5.  To  whom  (of  the  gods)  will  ye  liken  Me,  with  which  of  them 
will  you  put  Me  on  a  footing,  or  compare  Me,  that  we  may  be  equal  ? 
6.  They,  (the  heathen),^  shake  out  their  gold  from  the  bag,  and  weigh 
silver  in  the  balance,  and  hire  a  goldsmith,  to  make  it  into  a  god,  and 
then  they  fall  down  and  worship  it.  7.  The  workmen  take  it  on  their 
shoulders  and  carry  it,  and  fix  it  up  in  its  place,  and  it  stands  there, 
and  cannot  move  from  the  spot ;  when  one  flees  to  it,  it  cannot  answer, 
or  save  him  out  of  his  trouble.  8.  Think  on  this,  and  act  manfully ;  ® 
take  it  to  heart,  ye  rebellious!  9.  and  think  on  the  past — what  has 
happened  from  of  old — (My  predictions  that  have  been  fulfilled.  My 
mighty  deeds  wrought  for  you,  which  shew)  that  I  am  God  and  none 
else;  that  I  am  God,  and  no  one  like  Me,  10.  revealing  the  end  from 
the  beginning,  and  from  ancient  times  what  has  not  even  yet  hap- 
pened. He  who  says,  '  My  counsel  shall  stand  and  T  will  do  all  My 
pleasure,'  11.  who  calls  a  bird  of  prey  from  the  East,^  the  man  who  is 
to  execute  His  purpose,  from  a  far  country."  Not  only  have  I  spoken 
it,  I  will  also  bring  it  to  pass — I  have  decreed  and  will  carry  it  out ! 
12.  Hearken  unto  Me,  therefore,  ye  obdurate "  ones,  who  arc  far  from 
being  righteous,   13.  I  have  brought  near  (the  full  revelation  of)  My 

1  Collapse— sink  together.    Isa.  xlvi.  2-13. 

2  Literally,  "  as  when  one's  knees  give  way." 

3  Literally,  "  their  souls  are  gone,"  i.e.,  themselves. 

*  An  allusion  to  the  Exodus.  ^  Whether  heathen  Jews  or  others. 

*  De  Wette,  Gesenius,  and  Eichhorn  translate  the  word  thus.  Knobel,  Delitzsch, 
and  Nagelsbach  render  it  "be  firm."  Cheyne,  following  Lagarde,  has  ''  be  deeply 
ashamed  "  ;  but  this  seems  to  me  to  be  very  forced.  The  word  comes  either  from  an 
obsolete  root,  meaning  "to  crush  or  press  together,"  as  was  done  with  the  cakes  of 
dried  grapes  -or  from  the  word  for  "man,"  but  as  it  occurs  only  in  this  siugle  pas- 
sage, critics  differ,  and  always  will  do  so,  as  to  its  force. 

T  Elam.  8  Media. 

*  Literally,  "  stout  hearted  "  (in  wickedness).  The  ungodly  and  rebellious  among 
the  Jews  are  meant,  who  refused  to  believe  in  the  restoration  of  Israel,  or  its  de- 
liverance by  Jehovah. 


326  THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL. 

righteousness,*  it  is  not  far  off  ;  My  deliverance  (of  Israel)  will  not  be 
long  delayed,  and  I  will  give  salvation  in  Zion  and  My  glory  to  Israel." 

In  the  next  utterance  of  the  prophet  the  impending 
doom  of  Babylon  is  once  more  proclaimed.  The  great  city 
is  addressed  as  a  haughty  virgin  of  high  birth,  who  is 
henceforth  to  pass  from  splendour  to  debasing  servitude. 
Her  treatment  of  Israel  is  to  be  returned  into  her  own 
bosom,  and  none  of  her  sorcerers  or  magi  will  be  able  to 
avert  the  calamity. 

"XLVII.  1.  Come  down^  (from  thy  throne  of  glory)  and  sit  in  the 
dust,  0  virgin  daughter  of  Babylon.  Sit  on  the  ground,  not  on  thy 
throne,  0  daughter  of  the  Chaldaeans,  for  thou  shalt  no  more  be 
called  'The  delicate,'  and  'The  luxurious.'  2.  Take  the  mill-stones 
and  grind  meal,  (the  work  of  the  lowest  slave  girl),^  take  off  thy  veil, 
cut  short  the  long  skirts  of  thy  robe,  uncover  thy  leg,  wade  through 
streams!  3.  Thy  nakedness  will  be  uncovered,  and  thy  dishonour 
seen.  I  will  take  vengeance  on  thee  and  spare  no  man.  4.  But  our 
Redeemer,*  Jehovah  of  Hosts  is  His  name,  is  the  Holy  One  of  Israel! 

"  5.  Sit  silent;  get  thee  into  dai  kness,  0  daughter  of  the  Chaldaeans, 
for  thou  shalt  no  more  be  called  '  The  mistress  of  kingdoms.'  6.  I 
was  wroth  with  My  people  (Israel),  I  dishonoured  My  inheritance  and 
gave  them  into  thy  hands,  and  thou  didst  shew  them  no  mercy,  thou 
madest  thy  yoke  grievous  even  to  the  old  (among  them).  7.  Thou 
saidst,  '  I  will  be  a  queen  ^  for  ever ; '  thou  didst  not  take  these  things 
to  heart,  nor  remember  how  they  must  end. 

"8.  Hear,  therefore,  thou  haughty  one,  throned,  (as  thou  supposest), 
in  security,  and  saying  in  thy  heart,  '  I  am  (the first  of  nations);  there 

'  In  freeing  Israel,  and  thus  fulfilling  His  promises.  ^  Isa.  xlvii.  1-8. 

'  Grinding  the  daily  flour  of  the  household  was  the  task  of  the  humhlest  slave 
girls.  Exod.  xi.  5.  Job  xxxi.  10.  Horn.,  Od.,  xx.  J05-108.  The  mill  consists 
simply  of  two  round  stones,  the  under  one  slightly  higher  towards  the  middle  ;  the 
upper  one,  hollow,  to  fit  it  :  two  handles  rising  from  it,  by  which  to  turn  it  round, 
and  a  hole  being  put  in  the  centre,  for  letting  in  the  grain.  I  saw  two  women  grind- 
ing at  Joppa.  They  sat  opposite  each  other,  pushing  the  upper  stone  round,  each 
half  way,  quickly:  the  flour  falling  on  a  cloth  on  which  the  mill-stones  had  been  set. 
These  were  about  two  feet  across.  Bovet's  Egypt,  p.  310.  Luke  xvii.  35.  Matt 
xxiv.  41.    Land  and  Book,  p.  527.* 

*  Hebrew,  Go5l. 

*  Lady,  mistresg. 


THE    FIFTH    GOSPEL.  327 

is  no  other,  besides,  like  inc.*  I  slmll  novor  sit  a  widow,  (my  kingdom 
lost),  or  know  the  loss  of  children. ^  9.  Both  those  calamities  will  come 
on  thee  suddenly,*  on  the  same  day — loss  of  children  and  widowhood; 
they  will  come  on  thee  in  fullest  measure,  notwithstanding  the  mul- 
titude of  thy  divinations,  and  thy  countless  magic  spells  (to  ward  off 
evil).  10.  Thou  fanciedst  thyself  safe  in  thy  wickedness :  thou  saidst, 
'  No  one  sees  me  ! '  Thy  '  wisdom '  *  and  knowledge  have  led  thee 
astray,  so  that  thou  sayest  in  thy  heart,  *  I  am  (the  first  of  nations) ; 
there  is  no  other  besides.'  11.  Therefore  evil  shall  come  on  thee 
which  thou  knowest  not  how  to  charm  away ;  *  calamity  shall  overtake 
thee,  and  thou  shalt  not  be  able  to  avert  it  (by  thy  rites);  "  utter  ruin 
shall  befall  thee  suddenly  and  unexpectedly !  ^ 

"  12.  Keep  on  then  with  thy  divinations,  and  thy  many  magic  arts, 
in  which  thou  hast  toiled  since  thy  youth ;  it  may  be  that  thou  mayest 
get  good  from  them,  and  even  strike  terror  (into  thine  enemies) !  13. 
But  if  thou  art  wearied  with  the  spells,®  (prescribed  to  avert  destruc- 
tion), let  those  skilled  in  reading  the  heavens,  the  observers  of  the  stars, 
who  tell  thee,  each  new  moon,  what  is  about  to  come  on  thee,  stand  up 
and  save  thee  !  "  ^ 

But  all  such  helps  are  vain. 

"  14.  Behold,  all  these  (soothsayers  and  diviners)  will  be  like  stubble; 
the  flames  (of  the  coming  calamity)  will  burn  (up)  them  (as  well  as 
others ;  they  will  not  be  able  to  save  even  their  own  lives  from  the 
conflagration);  it  will  be  no  gentle  fire  to  warm  one's  self  at,  or  to  sit 
before  ! 

"  15.  Thus  will  it  be  with  (these  dealers  in  sorceries)  with  whom 
thou  weariest  thyself,  trafficking  with  them  '°  (in  their  arts)  from  thy 
youth — they  will  flee  every  one  his  own  way — none  shall  (be  able  to) 
save  thee  !  " 

»  Holds  the  same  rank.    Other  kingdoms  were  not  worthy  the  name. 
2  The  loss  of  States.  =*  Isa.  xlvii.  9-15. 

♦  Babylon  was  the  jjjreat  seat  of  the  "  wise"  and  "  learned"  in  magic  arts  connected 
with  heathenism.  It  was,  indeed,  as  I  have  said,  already,  the  Rome  of  Western 
Asia,  in  Bible  ages,  as  a  great  religious  centre,  while  its  wedge-shaped  writing  was 
that  used  even  as  far  off  as  Palestine.  To  road  and  write  was  in  fact  as  common  then 
as  it  is  now  with  us.  in  Babylon  and  the  lands  which  she  influenced. 

6  I  agree  with  Knobel,  Diestel,  Ewald,  Delitzsch,  Eichhorn,  and  others  in  prefer- 
rin<r  this  reading.  *  Literally,  "  to  atone  for  it." 

">  Without  thy  knowing  (beforehand).  »  "  Counsels  "  given  by  the  diviners. 

*  This  is  said  in  irony. 

•0  Some  prefer  to  understand  this  clause  of  the  traders  with  whom  Babylon  had 
driven  its  mighty  commerce. 


328  THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL. 

A  new  discourse  now  begins,  addressed  to  the  great  body 
of  the  exiles.  Honouring  Jeliovali  by  outward  homage, 
their  heart  and  life  were  alike  contrary  to  His  law.  Hav- 
ing jDredicted  their  captivity  on  account  of  their  rebellious- 
ness, long  before  it  took  place.  He  had  thus  shewn  Himself 
to  be  the  only  true  God.  He  was  about  to  take  steps 
towards  their  deliverance.  Would  that  they  might  even 
now  give  ear,  and  share  in  the  glorious  salvation  near  at 
hand  ! 

"  XL VIII.  1.  Hear  ye  this,  0  house  of  Jacob,  ^  called  by  the  name 
of  Israel,  come  forth  from  the  waters  of  Judah,- — who  swear  by  the 
name  of  Jehovah,  and  praise  the  God  of  Israel,  but  not  in  sincerity  or 
in  righteousness.  2.  For  they  call  themselves  (children)  of  the  Holy 
City,  ^  and  stay  themselves  *  on  the  God  of  Israel,  Jehovah  of  Hosts  is 
His  name." 

Jehovah  alone  is  to  be  acknowledged,  if  only  from  His 
having  so  long  before  predicted  the  events  about  to 
happen. 

"3.  The  former  things,  (now  fulfilled),  I  announced  long  ago;  out 
of  My  mouth  they  went  forth, ^  and  I  predicted  them;  I  carried  them 
out  suddenly  (and  unexpectedly),  and  they  came  to  pass.  4.  Because 
I  knew  that  thou  wast  hard  in  thy  heart,  and  that  thy  neck  was  a 
sinew  of  iron,®  and  thy  forehead  brass,  5.  I  foretold  the  future  to  thee 
from  of  old;  I  declared  it  to  thee  before  it  came  to  pass,  lest  thou 
shouldst  say,  '  My  idol  has  done  it,  my  image  of  wood  and  my  image 
of  metal  have  decreed  it.'^  6.  Thou  hast  heard  (the  prophecies) — 
there,  see  them  all  (fulfilled);  must  not  you  yourselves  own  it?    From 

1  Isa.  xlviii.  1-6. 

2  The  patriarch  of  the  tribe  is  compared  to  a  fountain  head. 

'  This  name  for  Jerusalem  occurs  here  for  the  first  time.  It  is  found  only  in  Isaiah 
and  the  later  books,  Dau.  ix.  24;  Neh.  xi.  1,  18;  Matt.  iv.  5;  xxvii.  53. 

*  Call  on  Jehovah;  in  words,  at  least,  not  forsaking  Him. 

s  This  is  the  seventh  appeal  to  prophecy  as  a  witness  for  God. 

®  Like  an  iron  band  or  collar. 

^  Most  of  the  Jews  remained  in  Babylon  among  the  heathen,  whom  they  imitated 
more  and  more,  becoming  almost  a  part  of  them.  Ezekiel,  xx.  30,  tells  us  the  fearful 
extent  to  which  idolatry  prevailed  among  them. 


THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL.  32{) 

this  time  forth  I  foretell  new  things  to  you,  hidden  things  which  you 
did  not  know.  7.  They  are  ordained  now,'  not  long  ago;  thou  hast 
not  heard  of  them  before  to-day,  lest  thou  shouldst  say,  '  Behold,  I 
knew  them.'  8.  Thou  hast  neither  heard  them  nor  known  them,  nor 
was  thine  ear  opened  (to  them  in  the  past),  for  I  knew  that  thou  art 
altogether  untrue  (to  Me),  and  that  thou  wast  called  Rebellious  from 
thy  birth.  9.  (It  is  only)  for  My  name's  sake  I  have  restrained  My 
anger,  and  for  My  own  glory  that  I  am  patient  towards  thee,  not  to 
cut  thee  off.  10.  Behold,  I  have  refined  thee,  but  not  as  silver  (is  re- 
fined); *  I  have  purified  thee  in  the  furnace  of  lilfliction.  11.  For  My 
own  sake,  for  My  own  sake  only,  will  I  fulfil  My  promise,'  for  how 
should  My  name  be  profaned?    Nor  will  I  give  My  glory  to  another." 

Oh  that  Israel  would  take  to  heart  that  Jehov.ah  alone 
has  foretold  what  is  about  to  happen,  and  is  thus  the  only 
true  God  ! 

**  12.  Hearken  to  me,  0  Jacob,  and  Israel,  My  called  one:  I  am  He, 
I  am  the  First  and  the  Last.  13.  My  hand  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  earth,  and  My  right  hand  spanned  the  heavens ;  I  spoke  My  (creat- 
ing word)  to  them,  and,  forthwith  (both  earth  and  heaven)  stood  up 
(before  me)! 

"14.  All  ye,  (sons  of  Israel),  assemble  yourselves,  and  hear.  Who 
among  the  gods  has  foretold  this  (which  is  about  to  happen)?  He 
whom  Jehovah  has  loved  will  perform  His  will  on  Babylon,  and  His 
chastisement  on  the  Chaldaeans  !  lo.  I,  even  I  have  said  it,  I  have 
called  him,  I  have  brought  him,  and  his  way  shall  be  prosperous.  16. 
Draw  near  to  Me,  hear  ye  this,  I  have  not,  from  the  beginning,  spoken 
in  secret.  From  the  time  what  is  happening  began,  there  was  I, 
(directing  and  ordering  all)." 

The  prophet  himself  next  speaks  to  Israel. 

"And  now  the  Lord  Jehovah  lias  sent  me,  with  His  Spirit.  17. 
Thus  says  Jehovah,  thy  Redeemer,*  the  Holy  One  of  Israel:  I  am 
Jehovah  thy  God,  who  teacheth  thee  to  profit,  who  leadeth  thee  in  the 

'  Isa.  xlviii.  7-17. 

2  The  melting  of  silver  requires  a  great  heat,  1,873'^  of  Fahrenheit.  The  troubles 
set  on  Israel  were  heavy,  but  not  overwhelming.  Eichhorn  renders  the  verse,  "  1 
smelted  thee  because  thou  wasst  not  pure  silver,  and  drewoflE  the  best  from  thee  in 
the  furnace  of  affliction."  s  Literally,  "  do  it."  *  GOel. 


330  THE  FIFTH   GOSPEL. 

way  thou  shouldst  go.  18.  Oh  that  thou  hadst  hearkened  to  My  com- 
mandments !  Then  would  thy  peace  hare  been  (full)  as  a  river,  and 
thy  righteousness  ^  like  the  waves  of  the  sea;  19.  thy  seed,  also,  would 
have  been  as  the  sand,  and  thy  children  as  its  grains.^  Thy  ^  name 
would  not  have  been  cut  off  (from  the  Holy  Land)  nor  destroyed  (in  it) 
from  before  Me." 

The  faithful  remnant  of  Israel  will,  however,  be  deliv- 
ered. Their  triumphant  departure  from  Babylon  rises 
before  the  eyes  of  the  prophet.  Perhaps  he  intends  an 
appeal  to  them,  to  keep  this  great  aim  steadily  in  view. 

"20.  Get  ye  out  of  Babylon!  flee  from  Chaldaea!  Proclaim  it! 
shout  it  aloud  with  rejoicing  cries !  tell  it !  send  it  abroad  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth!  say,  'Jehovah  has  redeemed  His  servant  Jacob,  21.  and 
they  suffered  no  thirst  in  the  deserts  through  which  He  led  them ;  for 
He  caused  waters  to  flow  out  of  the  rocks  for  them ;  He  clave  the  stone 
and  the  waters  gushed  out.'  22.  But  there  is  no  peace,  no  prosperity, 
to  the  ungodly  (among  you,  who  follow  idols  and  refuse  to  hear  My 
voice),  says  Jehovah !  " 

With  the  forty-ninth  chapter  a  new  section  of  the  book 
opens.  Israel,  in  its  various  and  often  opposing  features, 
is  now  the  theme.  The  ''  Servant  of  Jehovah  ^^  is  intro- 
duced as  turning  to  the  heathen  nations,  and  revealing 
Himself  to  the  Gentiles,  in  weariness  at  the  stubborn  im- 
penitence of  the  mass  of  His  people. 

"XLIX.  1.  Hearken  to  me,  ye  distant  isles  and  coasts  of  the  sea! 
Listen,  ye  far-off  peoples:  Jehovah  called  me  (to  His  service)  from  the 
womb ;  from  my  mother's  lap  He  called  me  by  my  name  (as  His  ser- 
vant).*   2.  He  made  my  mouth  like  a  sharp  sword,'  He  hid  me  in  the 

'  Righteousness  is  here,  from  the  parallelism,  equivalent  to  "  prosperity,"  given 
them  by  God,  in  His  righteousness— that  is,  iu  the  righteous,  or  faithful,  fulfilment 
of  His  promises.    Isa.  xlviii.  18-22  ;  xlix.  1,  2. 

2  Literally,  "entrails,"  the  antecedent  is  almost  necessarily  "  the  sand,"  but  some 
make  "  the  sea"  the  antecedent,  and  translate  the  word  "  entrails  "  as  referring  to 
the  fish.     Cheyne  does  so,  hardly  with  propriety,  as  I  think. 

8  Hebrew,  His.  *  Jer.  i.  5.     Gal.  i.  15. 

6  Heb.  iv.  12.    Eph.  vi.  17.    Rev.  i.  16  ;  xix.  15. 


THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL.  331 

shadow  of  His  hand  (to  protect  me),  and  made  me  a  smooth  arrow,  and 
put  me  in  Hisquiver.'  3.  *  Thou  art  My  servant,"  0  Israel,'  said  He,  '  in 
whom  I  will  glorify  Myself.'  4.  But  I  (the  servant  of  Jehovah)  had 
said,  '  I  have  laboured  in  vain,  I  have  spent  my  strength  for  nought 
and  in  vain ;  verily  my  right,  (the  recompense  of  my  toil),  is  with  God, 
and  my  reward  with  my  God.'  " 

But,  though  for  the  time  cast  down,  the  time  of  reward 
win  come,  when  God  will  restore  His  kingdom  among  men, 
and  spread  the  worship  of  Jehovah  among  the  heathen. 
The  true  Israel,  who  are  ^'  the  Servant  of  Jehovah,"  how- 
ever vain  their  efforts  to  lead  their  brethren  to  serve  Jeho- 
vah, in  the  past,  will  hereafter  prevail. 

"5.  To  this  replied  Jehovah,^  who  formed  me  from  the  womb  to  be 
His  servant,  to  bring  Jacob  again  to  Him,  and  that  Israel  might  be 
gathered  to  Him ;  for  this  am  I  honoured  in  the  eyes  of  Jehovah,  and 
my  God  is  become  my  strength.  6.  He  answered,  I  say,  speaking 
thus:  '  It  is  too  little  that  thou  shouldst  be  My  servant,  merely  to  raise 
up  the  tribes  of  Jacob  and  to  lead  back  the  preserved  of  Israel :  so  I 
appoint  thee  to  be  a  light  to  the  heathen,  that  thou  mayest  be  My  sal- 
vation unto  the  ends  of  the  earth.' 

*'7.  Thus  says  Jehovah,  the  Redeemer  of  Israel,  his  Holy  One,  to 
Him  whom  man  despiseth,  to  Him  w^hom  the  people  abhor,  to  the  ser- 
vant of  rulers:  Kings  shall  see  (Him)  and  rise  up  (in  His  honour), 
princes  shall  bow  down  (before  Him)  in  reverence  to  Jehovah,  who  is 
faithful  (to  His  promises),  and  to  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  that  chose 
thee. 

"8.  Thus  says  Jehovah:  In  the  season  of  favour  I  will  hear  thee, 
and  in  the  day  of  deliverance  I  will  help  thee,  and  I  will  protect  thee, 
and  appoint  thee  for  a  covenant  of  the  people,*  to  raise  up  the  land,  to 
portion  out  the  desolate  heritages,  9.  that  thou  mayest  say  to  the 
prisoners,  'go  forth,'  and  to  those  that  are  in  the  darkness  (of  dun- 
geons), '  come  to  the  light.'  They  shall  feed  (as  the  flock  of  Jehovah) 
along  the  ways,  and  even  on  all  the  bare  hills  there  will  be  pasture  for 
them.     10.  They  shall  not  hunger  nor  thirst,  neither  shall  the  mirage 

»  The  figures  of  the  Bword  and  arrow  illustrate  the  power  of  His  words,  sharp  and 
penetrating.  '  Isa.  xlix.  3-10.  '  Eichhorn. 

*  The  deliverance  from  Babylon  will  be  a  pledge  or  sign  of  a  covenant  that  all  the 
rest  will  follow— the  raising  up  tiie  land,  etc.  (of  Palestine). 


332  THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL. 

distress  them,  nor  the  sun  smite  them,  for  He  that  has  pity  on  them 
shall  lead  them,  and  shall  guide  them  to  springs  of  water.  11.  And  I 
will  level  all  My  mountains  into  a  (smooth)  road,  ^  and  raise  My  high- 
ways (in  the  valleys).  12.  Behold,  these  come  from  far,  (in  the  west), 
and,  lo,  these  from  the  distant  north,  and  these  from  the  (southern)  sea, 
and  these  from  the  land  of  Sinim  !  ^ 

''13.  Sing,  0  Heavens  ;  be  joyful,  0  Earth  ;  break  forth  into  jubi- 
lee, 0  mountains,  for  Jehovah  has  comforted  His  people,  and  has  pity 
on  his  afflicted  ones,  14.  But  Zion  said,  '  Jehovah  has  forsaken  me, 
the  Lord  has  forgotten  me.'  15.  Can  a  woman  forget  her  sucking 
child,  that  she  should  not  have  compassion  on  the  son  of  her  womb  ? 
Even  she  may  forget — yet  I  will  not  forget  thee  !  16.  Behold,  I  have 
written  thy  name  on  the  palms  of  My  hands  ;  ^  thy  walls  are  continu- 
ally before  Me.  17.  Thy  sons  shall  make  haste  (to  thee,  to  rebuild 
thee) ;  those  that  destroyed  and  laid  thee  waste  shall  depart  from  thee. 

"18.  Lift  up  thine  eyes  round  about,  (0  Jerusalem),  and  look  I  All 
these  (throngs)  gather  themselves  together  and  come  to  thee.  As  I 
live,  says  Jehovah,  thou  shalt  surely  array  thyself  with  them,  as  (a 
woman  with  her)  ornaments,  and  bind  them  round  thee  as  a  bride  doth 
(her  girdle  of  price)  !  19.  Thy  ruins  and  desolate  places,  and  thy  rav- 
aged land,  will  be  too  narrow  for  its  inhabitants,  and  those  that  de- 
stroyed thee  *  will  be  far  away.  20.  The  children  born  to  thee  (among 
thy  exiles)  after  that  thou  hadst  lost  their  fathers  and  mothers,  (carried 
off  from  thee),  shall  yet  say  in  thine  ears,  '  The  place  is  too  narrow  for 
me  ;  make  room,  (my  neighbour),  that  T  may  have  space  to  dwell.'  21. 
Then  shalt  thou,  (Jerusalem),  say  in  thine  heart,  '  Who  has  borne  me 
these,  seeing  I  was  robbed  of  my  children  and  desolate  ;  a  captive  and 
an  outcast  ?  Behold,  I  was  left  altogether  lonely :  where  have  these 
been?'" 

Even  the  heathen  will  aid  in  the  restoration  of  the  ban- 
ished ones. 

1  Isa.  xlix.  11-21. 

2  The  farthest  east  of  the  world.  See  Gesenius,  Thes.,  s.  v.,  and  Delitzsch,  Jes., 
2te  Auf .,  pp.  712,  ff.  The  "  dispersion  "  would  gather  from  all  the  earth.  Tsin  was 
an  ancient  name  of  China.  NOldeke  questions  if  China  be  meant,  but  on  weak 
grounds.  Bibei.  Lex.,  vol.  v.  p.  331.  Prof.  Lacouperie  thinks  that  beyond  question 
Sinim  means  "  the  land  of  the  Shinas  "  of  ancient  and  modern  times,  on  the  slopes 
of  the  Hindoo-Khoosh.  The  population  then  was  the  most  distant  known  in  the  time 
of  Cyrus.  They  are  on  the  north-west  of  India.  The  Chinese  Empire,  he  says,  was 
not  founded  till  b.c.  221.    Bab.  and  Orient.  liecord,  i.  45-48. 

3  Isa.  xliv.  5.  ■*  Literally,  "  swallowed  thee  up." 


THE   FIFTH    GOSPE>..  333 

"22.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Behold'  I  will  lift  up  My  hand 
to  the  nations,  and  set  up  My  banner  to  the  peoples,  and  they  shall 
bring  thy  (young)  sons  in  their  bosom,  and  t  ay  (young)  daughters  on 
their  shoulders.  23.  And  kings  shall  be  thy  foster  fathers,  and 
queens  thy  nursing  mothers:  they  shall  bow  down  to  thee,  with  their 
face  to  the  earth,  and  kiss  the  dust  of  thy  feet,'  and  thou  shalt  know 
that  I  am  Jehovah — Him,  trusting  in  whom,  no  one  shall  be  ashamed." 

The  faint-hearted  doubt  the  possibility  of  deliverance 
from  Babylon,  but  the  prophet  repeats  the  Divine  assur- 
ance. 

"24.  'Can  the  prey  be  taken  from  the  mighty  one;  can  the  captives 
of  the  terrible  one  really  escape  ? ' 

"25.  Thus  says  Jehovah,  Even  the  captives  of  the  mighty  one  shall 
be  taken  (from  him),  and  the  prey  of  the  terrible  one  shall  be  deliv- 
ered, for  I  will  fight  with  him  who  fights  with  thee,  and  I  will  save 
thy  children.  2G.  And  I  will  make  thy  oppressors  eat  their  own  flesh 
— (turning  against  each  other),  and  they  will  be  drunk  with  their  own 
blood,  as  with  sweet  wine,'  and  all  flesh  shall  know  that  I,  Jehovah, 
am  thy  Saviour,  and  that  thy  Redeemer  is  the  Mighty  One  of  Jacob." 

Jehovah  closes  this  address  by  repudiating  once  more 
the  idea  that  He  has  cast  off  Israel,  as  the  murmurers 
alleged. 

*'L.  1.  Thus  says  Jehovah:  Where  is  your  mother's  bill  of  divorce- 
ment with  which  I  have  dismissed  her?*  To  which  of  My  creditors 
have  I  sold  you,  (My  children)  ? '  Behold,  ye  were  sold  for  your  sins, 
and  for  your  iniquities  was  your  mother  put  away.  2.  "Why,  when  I 
came  to  you  (by  My  prophets),  was  there  no  man  (who  heard  and 
obeyed)?  Why,  when  I  called,  was  there  no  one  to  answer  (and  give 
ear)?    Is  My  hand  too  short,  (too  weak),  to  redeem  (you)?    Have  I  no 

'  Isa.  xlix.  22-26;  1.  1,  2.  '  Literally,  "lick  up." 

3  After  the  first  victory  of  Cyrus  over  the  Babyloniacs,  various  sections  of  the 
Babylonian  army  deserted  to  the  conqueror,  and  henceforth  fought  against  their  'or- 
mer  brethren.  {Cyrop.,iv.2.)  The  Babylonian  vassal  kings,  Gobryas  and  Gadatas, 
lid  the  same,  and  this  defection  and  treachery  become  general.  (Cyrop.,  iv.  6 ;  v. 
-3  ;  xlvi.  1,  etc.). 

*  Deut.  xxiv.  1. 

6  2  Kings  iv.  1.    Neh.  v.  5.    Matt.  xviU.  28. 


334  THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL. 

power  to  deliver  ?  Behold,  by  My  rebuke  I  dry  up  the  sea,  and  turn 
rivers  into  dry  land ;  their  fish  stink  because  there  is  no  water,  and  die 
of  thirst.  3.  I  clothe  the  heavens  with  darkness, '  and  cover  them  with 
(the  blackness  of)  sackcloth !  "  '■' 

A  new  section  now  introduces  the  prophet  speaking  in 
his  own  person. 

"4.  The  Lord  Jehovah,  says  he,  has  given  me  the  tongue  of  the 
learned,  that  I  may  know  how  to  speak  comfort  to  the  weary  ;  ^  every 
morning  He  wakes  my  ear — (wakes  it)  to  hear  instruction.''  5.  The 
Lord  Jehovah  has  opened  my  ear,  and  I  have  not  resisted  nor  turned 
away.  6.  I  gave  my  back  to  the  smiters,  and  my  cheeks  to  them  that 
plucked  off  the  hair  ;  I  have  not  hidden  my  face  from  shame  and  spit- 
ting.* 7.  But  the  Lord  Jehovah  will  help  me,  therefore  I  am  not  over- 
whelmed (by  such  treatment),  but  have  set  my  face  like  a  flint  (against 
my  opponents),  and  know  that  I  shall  not  be  put  to  shame.  8.  He  is 
near  that  justifies  me  ;  who  will  contend  with  me  ?  let  us  stand  forth 
together.  Who  is  my  adversary  ?  let  him  come  near  to  me.  9.  Be- 
hold, the  Lord  Jehovah  will  help  me  ;  who  is  he  that  shall  condemn 
me  ?  lo,  they  will  all  perish  like  a  (moth-eaten)  garment,  the  moth  shall 
eat  them  up.  10.  Who  is  there  among  you  that  fears  Jehovah,  that 
hearkens  to  the  voice  of  His  servant,  though  he  walk  in  darkness  and 
has  no  light  ?  Let  him  trust  in  the  name  of  Jehovah  and  stay  himself 
upon  his  God." 

Destruction  will  in  the  end  overtake  the  adversaries. 

"11.  Behold,  all  ye  that  kindle  a  fire  (against  the  godly),  and  (as  it 
were)  gird  yourselves  with  firebrands:  Out,  get  ye  into  the  flame  of 
your  own  fire,  and  into  the  firebrands  ye  have  kindled  !     This  shall 

*  Isa.  1.  3-11.  '  Rev.  vi.  12.    Isa.  xx.  2.    Joel  i.  8. 
8  Literally,  "  to  help  the  weary  with  a  word." 

*  Literally,  "  as  the  learned." 

*  The  exactly  similar  treatment  of  our  Lord  will  strike  all.  Jeremiah  also  had  ex- 
perience of  such  shameful  treatment  (Jer.  xx.  2,  7).  We  find  it  also  in  Psalm  xxii.  7. 
Job  further  speaks  of  it  in  his  own  case  (Job  xxx.  10).  Scourging  was  common 
(2  Cor.  xi.  24).  So  also  the  seizing  the  beard  and  palling  it  out  (Neh.  xiii.  25).  Hor. 
Serm.,  iii.  1,  133.  Matt.  xxvi.  67  ;  xxvii.  30  ;  2  Chron.  xxv.  16  ;  Acts  v.  40.  Gesenius 
quotes  a  poem,  in  which  the  hair  torn  from  the  beard  of  an  Abyssinian  martyr,  and 
the  teeth  struck  from  his  mouth,  were  gathered  and  sent  off  to  a  distance  as  relios. 
Jesaia,  vol.  li.  p.  143. 


THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL,  335 

ye  have  from  My  hand  (says  Jehovah);  ye  shall  lie  down  in  sor- 
row I "  * 

Such  discourses,  read  and  pondered  by  the  godly  among 
the  exiles,  who,  in  the  truest  sense,  were  the  ''  Servants  of 
Jehovah/'  were  the  means  designed  by  Providence  to  keep 
alive  and  strengthen  faith  in  Jehovah.  The  preaching  of 
the  days  of  the  Captivity  comes  before  us  in  these  verses. 
*'  Morning  by  morning,"  to  use  the  phrase  of  the  prophets, 
fresh  exhortations  quickened  the  religious  revival.  The 
next  runs  thus  : 

**  LI.  1.  Hearken  to  Me,'  ye  that  strive  after  righteousness,  and  seek 
Jehovah  !  Look  to  the  rock  from  which  ye  were  hewn  and  the  quarry- 
hole  from  which  ye  were  dug.^  2.  Look  to  Abraham  your  father,  and 
to  Sarah,  that  bare  you ;  how  I  called  him  when  only  a  single  individ- 
ual, and  yet  blessed  and  increased  him.*  3.  For  Jehovah  will  (as- 
suredly) comfort  Zion.  He  will  comfort  all  her  ruins:  He  will  make  her 
like  Eden,  though  she  is  now  a  wilderness,  and  like  the  garden  of  Jeho- 
vah, though  she  is  now  a  desert ;  joy  and  gladness  shall  (once  more)  be 
found  in  her,  thanksgiving  and  the  voice  of  melody. 

''4.  Hearken  to  Me,  My  people:  give  ear  to  Me,  0  My  nation:  for 
instruction  will  go  forth  from  Me,  and  I  will  set  up  My  Law  for  a  light 
of  the  peoples.  5.  My  righteousness  (in  the  fulfilment  of  My  promises) 
is  near;  My  salvation  is  about  to  break  forth,  and  My  (resistless)  arms 
will  judge  the  nations;  the  isles  (of  the  west)  will  hope  in  Me,  and  on 
My  arm  will  they  trust. 

' '  6.  Lift  up  your  eyes  to  the  heavens,  and  look  on  the  earth  beneath : 
for  the  heavens  will  vanish  away  like  smoke,  and  the  earth  fall  to 
pieces,  like  a  (moth-eaten)  garment,  and  its  inhabitants  die  like  flies :  * 
but  My  salvation  shall  be  for  ever,  and  My  righteousness  will  never 
perish.'    7.  Hearken  to  Me,  ye  who  know  righteousness,  ye  people  in 

>  Luke  xvi.  24.  2  jg^^  jj    i_7, 

'  A  figure  for  the  origin  of  the  nation,  explained  in  the  next  line. 

<  If  Israel  wa.s  protected  from  all  enemies  and  blessed  when  it  consisted  of  Abraham 
and  Sarah  alone — the  nation  being  yet  unborn-  how  much  more  would  God  protect 
and  bless  His  people  now,  against  all  foes  and  oppressors  I 

s  The  Chinnim  of  the  Egyptian  plagues.  Ex.  viii.  24,  31  ;  Ps.  cv.  31.  The  Talmud- 
ists  used  the  word  of  lice,  but  in  error. 

«  Literally,  "  break  in  pieces  (like  a  ruin)." 


336  THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL. 

whose  heart  is  My  Law ;  fear  not  the  reproach  of  (frail)  men,  neither  \)q 
afraid  of  their  revilings.  8.  For  the  moth  shall  eat  them  up  as  it  does 
a  garment, '  and  the  worm  shall  eat  them  as  it  does  wool :  but  My  right- 
eousness shall  be  for  ever,  and  My  salvation  from  generation  to  gener- 
ation." 

Animated  by  such  words  from  Jehovah,  the  prophet 
directly  apostrophizes  Him,  or,  rather.  His  mighty  arm. 

"  9.  Awake  !  awake  !  put  on  strength,  0  arm  of  Jehovah  !  Awake, 
as  in  the  ancient  days,  the  generations  of  old.  Art  not  thou  the  arm 
that  cut  olf  the  (Egyptian)  sea-raonster,^  that  hewed  in  pieces  the 
dragon^  (of  the  Nile)?  10.  Art  thou  not  it  that  dried  up  the  (Red) 
Sea,  the  waters  of  that  great  flood ;  that  made  the  depths  of  the  sea  a 
path  for  the  ransomed  to  pass  over  ?  " 

Who  can  doubt,  then,  that  He  will  deliver  Israel  from 
Babylon  ! 

"11.  So,  the  redeemed  of  Jehovah  will  return  (from  Babylon),  and 
come  amidst  loud  rejoicings  to  Zion ;  everlasting  joy,  (like  a  garland) 
on  their  head;  they  will  reach  out  their  hand  to  gladness  and  joy  at 
last,  and  sorrow  and  sighing  will  flee  away."* 

Jehovah  again  addresses  the  exiles. 

**  13.  I,  even  I,  am  He  that  comforteth  you;  who  art  thou  that  thou 
art  afraid  before  man  who  dies ;  before  the  son  of  man  who  withers  like 
grass,*  13.  and  forgettest  Jehovah,  thy  Maker,  that  stretched  out  the 
heavens,  and  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth ;  and  that  thou  tremblest 
continually,  all  the  day  long,  before  the  fury  of  the  oppressor,  when  he 
draws  (the  bow)  to  destroy  thee  ?  And  where  is  the  fury  of  the  op- 
pressor ?    14.  The  prisoner  bowed  down  in  the  dungeon  will  speedily 

1  Isa.  li.  8-14. 

2  Rahab  =  sea-monster,  used  as  a  figure  of  Egypt— Ps.  Ixxxvii.  4;  Ixxxix.  10; 
Ixxiv.  13,  14.  Pharaoh  is  spoken  of  in  the  same  way,  Ezek.  xxix.  3  ;  xxxii.  2  ;  so 
also  Babylon,  Isa.  xxvii.  1.  "  Seas,"  it  must  be  remembered,  refer  to  the  Nile  and 
it.«  great  canals. 

s  The  crocodile="  the  dragon,"  is  stamped  on  Roman-Egyptian  coins  as  a  symbol 
of  the  country.    Gesenius,  Jes.,  vol.  ii.  p.  146. 

*  The  expression  is,  literally,  a  figure  of  one  reaching  forth  the  hand  and  greeting, 
after  a  long  absence  from  theni.        ^  Literally,  "  is  given  (to  withering),  like  grass." 


THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL.  337 

be  set  free,  and  shall  not  die  in  the  pit,  neither'^hall  his  bread  fail;  15. 
for  I  am  Jehovah  thy  God,  who  rouseth  up  the  sea  so  that  its  waves 
roar.  Jehovah  of  Hosts  is  His  name.  16.  And  I  put  My  words  in  thy 
mouth,'  (0  servant  of  Jehovah),  and  cover  thee  in  the  shadow  of  My 
hand,  that  1  may  stretch  out  (a  new)  heaven,  lay  the  foundations  ot 
(a  new)  earth,  and  say  to  Zion,  'Thou  art  My  people;'  (thus  effacing 
the  miseries  of  the  past  and  making  all  things  new,  for  thee)  ! " 

The  prophet  now  addresses  Jerusalem,  as  the  capital  of 
the  restored  Israel. 

"  17.  Awake  !  awake  !  arise,  0  Jerusalem,  who  hast  emptied,  at  the 
hand  of  Jehovah,  the  cup  of  His  wrath ;  who  hast  drunk  and  swallowed 
down  the  dregs  of  the  great  cup  that  made  thee  reel.  18.  There  was 
no  one  to  lead  her  ^  of  all  the  sons  she  had  borne ;  no  one,  of  all  the  sons 
she  had  brought  up,  to  take  her  by  the  hand,  (in  her  trouble).  19. 
Two  calamities  happened  to  thee,  who  will  console  thee  ?  desolation 
and  destruction,  famine  and  the  sword,  how  shall  I  comfort  thee  ?  20. 
Thy  sons  fainted,  they  lay  (powerless)  at  the  corners  of  all  the  streets, 
like  a  stag  caught  in  a  net;  they  were  full  of  the  wrath  of  Jehovah, 
t  he  rebuke  of  thy  God. ' 

'•21.  Therefore,  hear  now  this,  thou  afflicted  and  drunken,  but  not 
with  wine.  22.  Thus  says  thy  Lord,  Jehovah, — thy  God  who  main- 
tains the  cause  of  His  people,  Behold  I  take  out  of  thy  hand  the  cup 
that  made  thee  reel,  the  great  cup  of  My  wrath;  thou  shalt  not  drink 
it  again.  28.  I  put  it  into  the  hand  of  them  that  afflicted  thee,  who 
said  to  thy  soul,  '  Cast  thyself  down  that  we  may  walk  on  thee,'  and 
thou  madest  thy  back  like  the  ground  and  like  the  street,  to  them  that 
trod  over  thee.* 

"LIT.  1.  Awake,  awake,  put  on  thy  strength,  0  Zion;  put  on  thy 
best  robes,  0  Jerusalem,  thou  holy  city  !  for  (heathen)— uncircumcised 
and  unclean— shall  no  more  come  unto  thee.  2.  Shake  off  from  thee 
the  dust  (in  which  thou  hast  sat);  arise  and  sit  (once  more,  as  a  queen): 
loosen  the  chains  (of  thy  slavery),  from  thy  neck,  0  captive  daughter 
of  Zion. 

"  3.  For  thus  says  Jehovah:  Ye  were  sold  (to  Babylon)  without  any 

'  Isa.  li.  16-23  ;  lii.  1-3.  »  Jerusalem. 

3  The  reference  is  to  Jerusalem  on  the  eve  of  its  destruction  by  Nebuchadnezzar. 

*  In  the  ceremony  of  the  Doseh  in  Egypt,  lines  of  people  cast  themselves  down  side 
by  side,  while  jjersonages  reported  holy  ride  over  them.  Lane's  Modern  Egyp- 
tians. 

VOL.  VI.-22 


338  THE    FIFTH    GOSPEL. 

payment  (for  you,  to  Me,  your  Lord) ;  ye  shall  be  redeemed  from  her 
without  money  (paid  for  you,  to  them).  4.  For  thus  says  the  Lord 
Jehovah:  My  people  went  down  of  old'  to  Egypt,  to  sojourn  there, 
(and  were  oppressed  and  enslaved),  and  (at  a  later  time)  Assyria  op- 
pressed them  without  provocation.  5.  And  now — what  have  I  to  do 
here  (in  Babylon),  says  Jehovah,  since  My  people  have  been  torn  away 
(from  their  fatherland)  as  slaves,  and  they  that  lord  it  over  them  yell 
out  their  hatred  of  them,  says  Jehovah,  and  My  name  is  continually, 
all  day  long,  reviled?  6.  Therefore  My  people  shall  know  My  name, 
(in  the  revelation  of  My  Divine  power),  and  learn  in  that  day,  that  it 
is  I  who  say,  *  Behold,  here  am  L'  " 

Full  of  glowing  hope  the  prophet  sees  the  great  deliver- 
ance as  if  already  accomplished,  his  brethren  joyfully  pro- 
claiming the  good  news,  and  messengers  hastening  to  Judah 
to  announce  them  there. 

"  7.  How  beautiful  upon  the  mountains  are  the  feet  of  him  that 
brings  good  tidings,  who  proclaims  peace,  who  announces  good  news, 
who  proclaims  deliverance,  who  says  to  Zion,  '  Thy  God  reigneth  ! '  8. 
Hark  !  thy  watchmen  (the  prophets)  '^  lift  up  the  voice  (from  their 
tower  of  vision) ;  they  lift  up  a  prolonged  cry  of  joy,  for  they  see  eye 
to  eye — (close  at  hand) '  —the  return  of  Jehovah  to  Zion.  9.  Break 
forth  into  loud  rejoicing,  shout  all  together,  ye  ruins  of  Jerusalem,  for 
Jehovah  has  comforted  His  people.  He  has  redeemed  Jerusalem  !  10. 
Jehovah  has  bared  His  holy  arm  *  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  nations,  and  all 
the  ends  of  the  earth  shall  see  the  deliverance  wrought  by  our  God. 
11.  Get  you  out  (0  Judah)  !  Get  you  out  !  set  forth  from  this  place 
— (Babylon) — take  nothing  that  is  unclean;  get  ye  out  of  the  midst  of 
her;  purify  yourselves  (0  Levites),  who  bear  the  (sacred  Temple)  ves- 
sels of  Jehovah."     12.  (But  all  this  can  be  leisurely  done),  for  ye  shall 

1  Literally,  "  at  the  first."    Isa.  lii.  4-12.  '  Isa.  Ivi.  10. 

^  Num.  xiv.  14.    Exod.  xxxiii.  11.    Num.  xii.  8. 

*  The  heroes  of  antiquity  threw  back  their  upper  garment  from  the  right  arm  and 
shoulder,  in  order  to  fight  without  hindrance.  See  Ezek,  iv.  7.  If  one  were  unwill- 
ing or  unable  to  fight,  he  kept  his  hand  in  the  bosom  of  his  robe.    Ps.  Ixxiv.  11. 

s  The  land  of  Babylon  was  unclean.  They  were  to  take  nothing  defiled  with  them, 
and  guard  themselves  from  Levitical  impurity,  since  Jehovah  was  their  leader.  The 
Levites  especially,  who  bore  the  vessels  of  the  Temple,  now  restored,  were  to  purify 
themselves— by  cutting  the  hair,  and  washing  their  clothes  and  persons.  Lev.  viii. 
6.    Num.  viii.  6,  ff. 


THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL.  339 

not  go  out  (as  from  Egypt) '  in  trembling  haste,  nor  will  your  march  be 
a  flight  (as  it  was  then) ;  Jehovah  will  go  before  you ;  the  God  of  Israel 
will  guard  your  rear." 

From  this  vision  of  the  temporal  restoration  of  Israel, 
we  pass  to  a  new  and  distinct  section  of  tlie  prophet.  The 
peculiar  expression,  "  the  Servant  of  Jehovah/'  which  bears 
so  many  meanings,  in  different  connections,  is  now  intro- 
duced in  language  continually  used,  in  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles,'  as  vividly  illustrating  the  relations  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  to  mankind,  and  the  details  of  His  sufferings 
on  our  behalf.  This,  however,  is  quite  compatible  with  an 
original  reference  intelligible  to  the  contemporaries  of  the 
prophet,  to  whom  the  whole  of  his  addresses  were  delivered, 
as  relating  to  their  own  circumstances  and  prospects. 
Their  applicability,  in  many  parts,  to  our  Lord,  could  not, 
of  course,  have  been  dreamed  by  the  generation  which  lived 
five  hundred  years  before  He  was  born,  and,  indeed,  is 
not,  even  yet,  acknowledged  by  the  Jewish  race,  as  refer- 
ring to  Him.  In  its  first  and  direct  meaning,  therefore,  the 
name  "  Servant  of  Jehovah^'  seems  to  have  been  intended, 
in  these  chapters,  as  a  personification  of  the  true  servants 
of  God  among  the  exiles,  who  had  borne  so  much,  alike 
from  their  brethren  and  their  oppressors,  for  their  noble 
fidelity  to  their  heavenly  Master.  To  personify  these  faith- 
ful ones  was  specially  natural  in   Hebrew   poetry,  which 

»  Exod.  xii.  39.     Dent.  xvi.  3. 

'  Compare  Isa.  xlii.  1  ;  Matt.  xii.  18,  flf.  ;  Acts  xiii.  47  ;  Isa.  xlix.  8,  with  2  Cor.  vi. 
2.  Isa.  Hi.  15,  with  Rom.  xv.  21.  Isa.  liii.  1,  with  John  xii,  38 ;  Rom.  x.  16.  Isa. 
liii.  4,  with  Matt.  viii.  17.  Ii?a.  liii.  5.  6,  with  1  Pet.  ii.  24.  Isa.  liii.  7,  8,  with  Acts 
V.  32.    Isa.  liii.  9,  with  1  Pet.  ii.  24.    Isa.  liii.  12,  with  Luke  xxii.  37. 

Various  critics  have  advanced  one  or  other  of  the  following  views :  (1)  That  the 
Servant  of  Jehovah  was  the  whole  body  of  the  Exiles  (2)  The  better  portion  of 
them.  (3)  The  idealized  office  of  the  prophets,  especially  the  Messiah,  the  ideal  of 
all  prophets.  (4)  The  Messiah.  The  passages  especially  included  in  these  interpreta- 
tione  are  Isa.  xlii.  1-7  ;  xlix.  1-9  ;  lii.  12  ;  liii.  12. 


340  THE    FIFTH    GOSPEL. 

delights  in  such  impersoiuitions,  for  even  our  colder  Eng- 
lish poets  often  personify  countries,  nations,  parties,  and 
principles,  to  give  force  and  beauty  to  their  verse.  In  no 
way  could  the  prophet  so  effectively  paint  the  trials  and 
persecutions,  even  to  martyrdom,  of  the  Abdiels  of  the 
exile,  or  their  approaching  trium^^hant  restoration  to  their 
own  land,  with  the  glorious  re-establishment  of  the  long- 
interrupted  worship  of  Jehovah,  in  a  new  temple  at  Jeru- 
salem, as  by  personifying  them  in  the  exquisite  creation  of 
an  ideal  individuality,  Avhich,  unknown  to  him,  supplied  a 
striking  parallel  to  that  of  the  supreme  Servant  of  Jeho- 
vah, our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  It  is,  indeed,  a  favourite  con- 
ception with  him,  to  which  he  constantly  returns,  with 
loving  tenderness.  Israel,  or  Jacob,  is,  again  and  again, 
called  the  Servant  of  Jehovah  :  the  true  godly  Israel 
being,  thus,  idealized  into  a  personality.* 

The  prophet  now  goes  on  to  paint  this  Servant  of  Jeho- 
vah in  the  light  in  which  he,  though  now  for  a  time  given 
over  by  God  "  to  the  curse  ''  and  *^^to  reproaches  "'  among 
the  heathen,  would  be  viewed  by  the  happy  generations, 
who  should,  hereafter,  through  the  reformation  brought 
about  in  the  race  by  the  sore  trials  of  exile,  enjoy  the 
favour  of  Jehovah,  once  more,  in  their  restored  home  in 
Palestine.  The  Israel  of  the  furnace  of  affliction — the 
godly  among  the  exiles — had  been  truly  for  them  '*■  the 
Servant  of  the  Lord,'"  for,  with  all  their  fidelity  to  their 
heavenly  Master,  they  had  endured,  for  their  whole  life- 
time, through  long,  long  years,  misery  of  every  kind  and 
of  terrible  intensity.  But  this  grievous  lot,  apparently  so 
little  deserved  by  such  worthies,  had  been  the  salvation  of 

*  Isa.  xlii.  19  ;  xliii.  10  ;  xliv.  1,  21  ;  xlv.  4  ;  xlix.  3  (among  other  texts). 
«  Isa.  xliii.  28. 


THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL.  341 

their  posterity.  Tlie  sins  of  tlie  nation  had  been  visited 
on  these  outcasts  from  Zion,  and  God  had  already  said, 
through  the  prophet,  that  it  would  receive,  at  His  hands, 
double  compensation  for  all  its  punishments,  which  these 
stricken  ones  had  borne. ' 

"13.  Behold, 2  My  Servant  shall  prosper;  he  shall  be  high  and 
glorious  and  greatly  exalted. 

' '  14.  As  many  were  shocked  at  thee  (him — in  the  past),  so  marred 
and  unlike  that  of  a  man  was  his  visage,  and  his  form  unlike  that  of 
the  sons  of  men — 15.  so,  (hereafter),  will  he  fill  many  nations  with 
wonder;  '^  kings  shall  close  their  mouths  before  him  (in  wonder  at  his 
deliverance  and  glory),  for  that  which  had  not  been  told  them  they 
shall  see,  and  that  which  they  had  not  heard  they  shall  behold." 

The  prophet  laments  the  coldness  with  which  his  reve- 
lations have  been  received,  and  then  proceeds. 

■  "LIII.  1.  Who  has  believed  our  message,*  and  to  whom  has  the 
arm  of  Jehovah,  (that  is.  His  secret  purposes  and  working),  been  re- 
vealed? 2.  For  he,  (the  servant  of  Jehovah),  grew  up  before  us  ''  like 
a  tender  shoot,®  and  as  a  sucker  (from  a  root)  in  dry  ground;  he  had 
no  attraction  nor  comeliness,'  and  when  we  looked  there  was  no  beauty 
that  we  should  desire  him.  3.  He  was  despised  and  forsaken  of  men; 
a  man  suffering  pain "  and  acquainted  with  sickness,  (or,  '  knowing 

»  Isa.  xl.  2.  5  Isa.  lii.  13-15  ;  liii.  1-3. 

3  The  verb  here  is  always  translated  "  sprinkle,''  in  the  A.  V.,  but  this  gives  no 
intelligible  meaning.  In  harmony  with  Hebrew  usage,  Jewish  interpreters  under- 
stand it  of  the  dashing  up  of  water,  so  as  to  scatter  it  in  separate  drops,  and  apply 
it  to  the  casting  out  of  the  Gentiles  befere  Israel.  Miihlau  und  Volck,  following 
Gesenius  (Thes.,  p.  868),  compare  the  Arab  AY/s'fi— (same  sound  as  Hebrew  verb), 
and  give  the  meaning  of  "  springing  up  for  joy  or  fear."  Thence  it  is  used  of  water 
'•  springing  up  "  over  any  obstacle,  and  hence  of  its  being  sprinkled,  or  thrown  off 
in  drops  by  any  sudden  force.  "  To  sprinkle,"  so  as  to  purify  from  guilt,  is  always 
connected  with  a  preposition,  and  it  would  give  no  fitting  parallel  here  to  the  rest  of 
the  verse.  *  Preaching,  tidings. 

'  *'  Him,"  in  Hebrew  text.  Ewald  proposes  "  us,"  which  certainly  suits  the  fol 
lowing  clauses. 

«  The  sucker  of  a  tree.  ''  Some  render  it  '  glory,"  or  "majesty." 

8  According  to  some,  "pains,"  but  it  also  means  sorrows.  Exod.  iii.  7.  Lam.  L 
12,  18.    Ps.  xxxii.  10  ;  xxxviii.  18. 


342  THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL. 

grief,')'  and  like  one  before  whom  we  hide  our  face;  "he  was  despised 
and  we  esteemed  him  not.  4.  Verily  he  has  borne  our  pains  and  carried 
our  sicknesses,  2  but  we  regarded  him  as  one  stricken,  smitten,  and  laden 
with  suifering  by  God,  (for  his  own  sins).  5,  Yet  he  was  pierced  for 
our  transgressions,  he  was  maltreated  ^  for  our  iniquities ;  the  chastise- 
ment *  of  our  peace  ^  lay  upon  him,  and  by  his  stripes  we  are  healed. 
6.  All  we,  like  sheep,  had  gone  astray;  we  had  turned,  every  one,  to 
his  own  way,  yet  Jehovah  caused  the  iniquities  of  us  all  to  come  upon 
him.  7.  He  was  oppressed  and  evil  treated,  but  he  opened  not  his 
mouth ;  like  the  lamb  that  is  led  to  the  slaughter,  and  the  sheep  that 
is  dumb  before  its  shearers,  he  opened  not  his  mouth.  8.  He  was 
snatched  away  by  prison  and  by  judgment,  and  who  was  there  among 
his  generation,  that  said  to  himself,  '  He  was  cut  off  from  the  land  of 
the  living  (though,  for  his  goodness,  he  ought  to  have  had  a  long  life); 
(who  has  said)  that  he  was  stricken  for  the  transgressions  of  my  people? 
9.  They  gave  him  his  grave  with  the  wicked  and  with  the  oppressor  at 
his  death,  ^  although  he  had  done  no  wrong  and  there  was  no  deceit  in 
his  mouth.  10.  Yet  it  pleased  Jehovah  to  smite  him:  ^  He  put  him  to 
grief.**  But  though  he  gave  his  life  an  offering  for  sin,  he  shall  see  his 
seed,  and  live  long,  and  the  purpose  of  Jehovali  will  prosper  in  his 
hand.  11.  From  the  travail  of  his  soul,  he  looks  away  (to  what  will 
follow),  and  is  satisfied.  By  his  knowledge  shall  my  righteous  ser- 
vant make  many  righteous,  and  he  bears  on  himself  the  load  of  their 
iniquities. 

"  12.  Therefore  will  I  give  him  a  portion  among  the  great,  and  he 
will  divide  the  spoil  with  the  strong,®  for  he  poured  out  his  soul  to 
death,  and  let  himself  be  numbered  with  the  transgressors;  whereas 
he  had  borne  the  sins  of  many,  and  made  intercession  for  the  trans- 
gressors." 

Another  address  to  Israel,  and  especially  to  Jerusalem, 
or  rather  to  the  ideal  Zion  of  the  future,  embracing  the 

1  Rendered  sometimes,  "  sickness,"  but  it  also  means  "grief,"  literally  "  knowing 
grief,"  or  possibly  "sickness."  Delitzsch  translates,  "a  man  of  pains  and  ac- 
quainted with  sickness."    So  also  Ewald,  De  Wette,  Knobel. 

2  Or  "sorrows."    Isa.  liii.  4-12. 

3  Literally,  "hurled  down,  and  trampled  on." 

*  Punishment.  s  Which  brought  us  peace. 

8  Hebrew,  deaths  =  martyr-death,    pi.  of   honour.    "Oppressor "—Ewald.    This 
seems  right  from  the  parallelism  with  "wicked." 
■^  Literally,  "  to  crush  Him  to  pieces  " — as  straw,  for  instance,  beneath  the  rough 
8  He  laid  grief  -misery-  on  him.  »  A  great  company.    Ewald. 


THE    FIFTH    GOSPEL.  343 

Church  in  all  ages,  follows.  Read  by  the  faithful  among 
the  Hebrew  exiles  in  Egypt,  and,  far  off,  on  the  banks  of 
the  Chebar,  such  words  must  have  jiromoted  the  religious 
enthusiasm  that  made  the  Eeturn  possible  ;  for,  even  now, 
they  fill  the  heart  with  dcA^out  emotion. 

"1.  Sing  aloud,'  0  (Zion,  thou)  barren  One,  who  didst  not  bear 
(c'liildren,'^  thy  people  being  in  exile);  break  forth  into  songs  of  joy, 
and  ei-y  aloud  in  thy  gladness,  thou  that  didst  not  bring  forth!  Far 
more  are  Thy  children,  though  (thou  hast  lain  desolate),  than  the  chil- 
dren of  the  married  woman,  says  Jehovah.  2.  Widen  the  space  of 
thy  tents  ;  ^  let  them  stretch  out  their  coverings  without  stint  ; 
lengthen  thy  tent-ropes  and  make  thy  tent-pins  strong.*  3.  For  thou 
shalt  spread  forth  on  the  right  hand  and  the  left,  and  thy  sons  shall 
drive  out  the  heathen,*  and  inhabit  anew  the  (now)  desolate  cities. 

"4.  Fear  not,  for  thou  shalt  not  be  put  to  shame;  be  not  cast  down, 
for  thou  shalt  not  be  a  reproach ;  but  wilt  (instead)  forget  the  shame 
of  thy  youth  (in  Egypt),  and  wilt  not  any  more  think  of  the  reproach 
of  thy  childlessness,^  (when  thy  sons  were  in  Babylon).  5.  For  thy 
Maker  is  thy  husband,  Jehovah  of  Hosts  is  His  name,  and  thy  Re- 
deemer is  the  Holy  One  of  Israel — the  God  of  the  whole  earth  shall  He 
be  called.  6.  For  Jehovah  hath  called  thee  (back  again  to  Plim),  as  (a 
husband  recalls)  the  dejected  and  broken-spirited  wife  of  his  youth, 
(once  sent  away  in  shame).  7.  For  a  brief  moment  I  cast  thee  out, 
saith  thy  God,  but  with  great  pity  will  I  gather  thee  (back  to  thy 
land).  8.  In  vehement  indignation  I  hid  My  face  for  a  moment  from 
thee,  but  with  everlasting  loving-kindness  will  I  have  pity  on  thee, 
says  Jehovah,  thy  Redeemer.  9.  For  this  (punishment  of  thine)  is  like 
the  waters  of  Noah's  flood  unto  me;  as  1  swore  that  they  should  no 
more  overflow  the  earth,  so  I  have  sworn  that  I  will  not  be  wroth  with 
thee,  or  chasten  thee  (again).  10.  For  the  mountains  may  move  (from 
their  place)  and  the  hills  be  thrown  (down),  but  My  loving-kindness 
shall  not  remove  from  thee,  nor  My  covenant  of  peace  (towards  thee) 
be  broken,  says  Jehovah,  that  has  pity  upon  thee." 

Jerusalem,  the  centre  of  the  new  Kingdom  of  Israel,  will 
be  beyond  measure  glorious.     The  boldest  style  of  Eastern 

'  Isa.  liv.  1-10.  2  isa.  xlix.  21.  ^  Singular  in  Hebrew. 

*  Literally,  "breakout."  *  Literally,  "nations." 

«  Literally,  "widowhood." 


344  THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL. 

imagery  is  used  to  bring  before  the  mind  its  future  splen- 
dour, which  is  described  in  language  that  could  never  be 
applied,  literally,  to  any  city. 

*' 11.  0  Thou  afflicted,*  tempest-tossed  one,  who  hast  had  no  com- 
forter! Behold  I  will  set  off  ^  thy  (white)  stones  with  glittering  black,® 
and  garnish  thy  foundations  with  sapphires,  12.  and  I  will  make  thy 
battlements  of  rubies,  and  thy  gates  of  carbuncles,*  and  thy  pinnacles 
of  sparkling  precious  stones.  13.  And  all  thy  children  will  be  dis- 
ciples of  Jehovah,  and  great  shall  be  their  peace.  14.  Through  right- 
eousness shalt  thou  be  securely  established;  thou  shalt  be  (kept)  far 
from  dread  of  evil,  for  thou  shalt  not  (need  to)  fear,  and  thou  shalt 
have  no  (thought  of)  terror,  for  alarm  shall  not  come  near  thee. 
15.  Behold,  if  strife  be  raised  against  thee,  it  will  not  be  from  Me; 
if  an  enemy  gather  in  war  against  thee,  he  shall  fall  beneath  thy 
walls."  " 

No  one  shall  prevail  against  Zion,  for  Jehovah  has  all 
the  agents  of  danger  under  His  control. 

"16.  Behold,  I  have  created  the  armourer  who  blows  the  coals  in 
the  smithy  and  makes  a  weapon  for  war,®  and  I  have  created  the 
destroyer  to  destroy.  17.  No  weapon  formed  against  thee  shall 
prosper,  and  every  tongue  that  shall  rise  in  accusation  against  thee, 
thou  shalt  prove  guilty.  This  is  the  inheritance  of  the  servants  of 
Jehovah,  and  their  righteousness  given  by  Me,  says  Jehovah." 

The  apathy  and  moral  insensibility  of  the  exiles  to  the 
exhortations  of  the  faithful  prophets  were  well-nigh  invin- 
cible. They  listened,  but  gave  no  further  heed.  The 
attractions  of  Babylon,  with  its  rich  soil  and  commercial 
prosperity,  outweighed,  with  all  but  a  few,  the  induce- 
ments to  return  to  the  barren  hills  of  Judah.     Where  they 

»  Isa.  liv.  11-17.  '  Cement. 

3  Literally,  "antimony,"  with  which  Jewish  women  painted  their  eyelids.  2 
Kings  ix.  30.  Jer.  iv.  30.  1  Chron.  xsix.  2.  Job  xlii.  14,  has  a  daughter  called 
Kerenhappuch  =  "  Horn  of  eye-paint."  *  Stones  of  fiery  splendour. 

s  Literally,  "he  shall  fall  to  thee"  =  "shall  be  broken  against  thee." 

8  Literally,  "  for  its  work." 


THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL.  .         345 

were,  they  had  the  protection  of  a  great  empire,  and  oppor- 
tunities on  every  hand  for  advancing  their  worklly  interests; 
in  Judaea  they  would  have  to  face  poverty  and  danger. 
Hence  they  were  as  little  disposed  to  go  back  to  Palestine 
as  the  rich  Jews  of  Europe  or  America  are  at  this  moment. 
Yet  no  supineness  on  the  part  of  their  hearers  could  damp 
the  ardour  of  the  prophets.  Sent  by  Jehovah  to  preach 
the  Return,  they  exhausted  every  form  of  address  to  make 
it  popular  with  their  fellow-exiles.  But  the  appeal,  which 
next  comes  before  us,  reaches,  beyond  the  immediate 
national  crisis,  to  infinitely  more  glorious  days.  Jehovah 
Himself  is  introduced  as  urging  them  to  seek  the  blessings 
He  offers,  rather  than  the  material  good  afforded  by  Baby- 
lon, which,  after  all,  did  not  satisfy  the  deeper  craving  of 
their  hearts. 

"  LV.  1.  Ho,'  everyone  that  thirsteth,  come  ye  to  the  waters;  ye 
that  have  no  money,  come,  buy  and  eat  !  yea,  come,  buy  wine  and 
milk  '^  without  money  and  without  price !  2.  Why  spend  '  money  for 
what  is  not  bread,  and  your  earnings  for  that  which  does  not  satisfy? 
Hearken!  hearken!  to  Me,  and  eat  ye  that  which  is  good,  and  let  your 
soul  delight  itself  in  fatness.  3.  Incline  your  ear  and  come  unto  Me  ; 
hear  and  your  soul  shall  live,  and  I  will  make  an  everlasting  covenant 
with  you,  even  the  neverfailing  mercies*  (promised  to)  David. ^  4.  Be- 
hold, I  have  appointed  him  a  witness  to  the  nations — a  ruler  and 
commander  to  the  nations.  5.  Behold,  thou  shalt  call  a  people  that 
thou  dost  not  know,  and  a  nation  which  thou  hast  not  known,  shall  run 
to  thee,  on  account  of  Jehovah,  thy  God,  and  for  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel,  because  He  has  made  thee  glorious." 

The  prophet  now  turns  to  the  perverse  and  stolidly 
obdurate  among  his  countrymen,    urging  them   to   seek, 

'  Isa.  Iv.  1-5. 

2  Jerome,  on  this  verse,  tells  us  that  it  had  led  to  the  custom,  in  the  Latin 
Churches,  hut  not  the  African,  of  giving  wine  and  milk  to  the  newly-baptized, 
s  Literally, '-weigh."  <  Or,  loving-kindnesses.     Ps.  ixxxix.  28. 

'  2  Sam.  vii.  12-16. 


346  THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL. 

while  they  might,  an  interest  in  the  wondrous  future  of 
their  race. 

"6.  Seek  ye  Jehovah,'  while  He  may  be  found  ;  call  ye  upon  Him 
while  He  is  near.  7.  Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the  un- 
righteous man  his  thoughts;  and  let  him  return  to  Jehovah,  and  He 
will  have  mercy  upon  him,  and  to  our  God,  for  He  will  abundantly 
pardon.  8.  For  My  thoughts  are  not  your  thoughts,  neither  are  your 
ways  My  ways,  says  Jehovah.  9.  For  as  the  heavens  are  higher  than 
the  earth,  so  are  My  ways  higher  than  your  ways,  and  My  thoughts 
than  your  thoughts." 

The  promises  of  man  are  not  always  trustworthy,  but 
those  of  Jehovah  are  sure  as  the  course  of  nature. 

*'10.  For  as  the  rain  and  the  snow  come  down  from  heaven,  and 
return  not  thither,  but  moisten  the  earth,  and  make  it  bring  forth  and 
sprout,  that  it  may  give  seed  to  the  sower  and  bread  to  the  eater,  11.  so 
shall  My  word  be  that  goes  forth  out  of  My  mouth  :  it  shall  not  return 
to  Me  without  result,  but  shall  accomplish  that  which  I  please,  and 
make  that  prosper  for  which  I  sent  it." 

The  exiles  will  assuredly,  notwithstanding  all  that  is  in 
the  way  of  their  liberation,  go  forth  from  Babylon,  with  joy. 

*'  12.  For  ye  will  go  forth  (from  Babylon)  with  joy,  and  be  led  out  in 
peace ;  the  mountains  and  the  hills  will  break  forth  before  you,  into  sing- 
ing, and  all  the  trees  of  the  field  will  clap  their  hands.  13.  Instead  of 
the  thorn  bush  (of  the  desert)  there  will  come  up  (on  the  line  of  march) 
the  cypress,  and  instead  of  the  prickly  shrub  (of  the  wilderness)  there 
will  spring  up  the  myrtle  tree,  and  they  will  remain  for  an  everlasting 
name  and  sign  of  Jehovah's  (great  deeds),  that  will  not  pass  away." 

The  superstitious  and  merely  formal  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  still  prevailed  in  Babylon. '^  A  few,  however,  kept 
the  sacred  day  more  worthily. 

"LVI.  1.  Thus  says  Jehovah,  Keep  the  Law  and  practise  the  right, 
for  My  deliverance'  (of  My  people  from  Babylon)  is  near  at  hand, 

'  Isa.  Iv.  6-13  ;  Ivi.  1.  -  Isa-  i-     Ezek.  xx.  12, 13,  16,  21,  24. 

«  For  "  the  right,"  or  "righteousness,"  the  Rabbis  read  "charity,"  making  that 
virtue  the  equivalent  of  righteousness. 


THE  FIFTH   GOSPEL.  347 

and  My  righteousness  is  about  to  bo  revealed.  2,  Blessed  is  the  man 
that  does  this,'  and  the  son  of  man  who  holds  fast  to  it;  who  keeps  the 
Sabbath  and  does  not  profane  it,  and  holds  back  his  hand  from  doing 
any  evil.  3.  Let  not  the  alien  who  has  joined  himself  to  Jehovah  say, 
*  Jehovah  will  assuredly  separate  me  (as  an  alien)  from  His  people, 'and 
let  not  the  eunuch  say,  '  Behold,  I  am  only  a  dry  tree.'  4.  For  thus 
says  Jehovah  to  the  eunuchs  that  keep  My  Sabbaths,  and  choose  the 
things  that  please  Me,  and  hold  fast  to  My  covenant  :  5.  I  will  give 
them,  in  My  house  and  within  My  walls,  a  memorial  ^  and  a  name, 
better  than  sons  and  daughters  ;  yea,  I  will  give  them  an  everlasting 
name  that  will  not  perish.  6.  As  to  the  aliens  who  join  themselves  to 
Jehovah,  to  serve  Him,  and  to  love  the  name  of  Jehovah,  becoming 
His  servants  ;  those  of  them  who  keei>  the  Sabbath  and  do  not  pollute 
it.  but  hold  fast  to  My  covenant,  7.  I  will  bring  to  My  Holy  Mountain, 
and  make  them  joyful  in  My  House  of  Prayer.  Their  whole  burnt 
offerings  and  their  sacrifices  will  be  accepted  upon  Mj  altar,  for  My 
House  will  be  called  a  House  of  Prayer  for  all  nations.  8.  The  Lord 
Jehovah,  who  gathers  the  outcasts  of  Israel,  says,  I  will  gather  others 
to  him  besides  those  gathered  from  his  own  tribes." ' 

The  fifty-eighth  chapter  of  Isaiah  throws  a  striking  light 
on  the  private  life  of  the  Hebrew  exiles  in  Babylon.  Pre- 
cise in  their  religions  observances,  they  followed  only  too 
closely  the  characteristic  ol  their  forefathers  in  Palestine, 
in  the  contrast  between  their  professions  and  practice. 
Jehovah,  addressing  the  prophet,  is  the  speaker. 

"  LVIII.  1.  Cry  with  a  full  throat,*  keep  nothing  back,  lift  up  thy 
voice  like  a  war  trumpet,  and  proclaim  to  My  people  their  transgres- 
sion and  to  the  house  of  Jacob  their  sins.  2.  They  inquire  of  Me, 
(indeed),  daily,  desiring  to  know  My  purposes,*  like  a  people  that 
practises  righteousness  and  has  not  forsaken  the  law  of  its  God.  They 
(even)  ask  of  Me  judgments  of  righteousness  (against  their  oppressors), 
and  desire  the  approach  of  God  (to  set  them  free). 

>  Isa.  Ivi.  2-8  ;  Iviii.  1,  2. 

2  Or  "  trophy  ;  "  literally,  "  hand."    2  Sam.  xviii.  18.    1  Sam.  xv.  12.    Ezek.  xxi.  24 
8  The  prophecy  comprised  in  Tsa.  Ivi.  8-lvii.  21,  is  translated  in  vol.  v.  pp.  50,  fif. 
*  As  when  one  blows  a  trumpet  note. 
'  Literally,  "  ways  ;  "  i.e.,  in  respect  to  their  deliverance  and  restoration. 


B48  THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL. 

"3.  /Why  do  we  fast,' say  they,  'and  Thou  dost  not  take  notice 
—why  have  we  humbled  our  soul  and  Thou  payest  no  regard  to  it  ? ' 
Behold,  (the  reason  is,  because)  in  the  day  of  your  fasting  ^  ye  follow 
keenly  your  business  affairs,  and  press  on  all  your  worldly  work.^  4. 
Behold,  ye  fast  with  strife  and  wrangling,  and  smite  (your  labourers)  witli 
the  fist,  in  wickedness.  Ye  do  not  so  fast  on  such  a  day,  as  to  make  your 
voice  to  be  heard  on  high.  5.  Is  this  the  kind  of  fast  I  love,  the  day 
when  a  man  humbles  his  soul  ?  Is  (true  fasting  merely)  to  bow  one's 
head  like  a  bulrush,  and  to  lie  down  in  sackcloth  and  ashes?  Wilt 
thou  call  that  a  fast,  and  a  day  acceptable  to  Jehovah? 

"6.  Is  not  this  (rather),  the  fast  that  I  choose — to  loose  the  fetters 
wrongfully  put  on  (your  poor  brethren),  to  undo  the  ties  of  their  yoke, 
and  let  the  oppressed  go  free,  to  tear  off,  (in  short),  every  yoke.^  7.  Is 
it  not  to  break  thy  bread  to  the  hungry,  and  to  bring  the  poor  into  thy 
house  (to  lodge  and  feed  them);  and  that,  when  thou  seest  the  naked, 
thou  clothe  him,  and  hide  not  thy  face  from  thine  own  people? 

"8.  (If  thy  fasts  be  like  this),  then  thy  light  shall  break  forth  like  the 
morning,  and  thy  prosperity  *  shall  soon  spring  up;  thy  righteousness 
shall  go  before  thee  (on  thy  way  back  to  Palestine),  and  the  glory  of 
Jehovah  shall  guard  thy  rear.  9.  Then  thou  shalt  call  and  Jehovah 
will  answer;  thou  shalt  cry  and  He  will  say,  'Here  am  I.'  If  thou 
banish  oppression  from  thy  midst,  and  the  pointing  of  the  finger  (at  the 
wretched,  in  contempt  and  derision),  and  fierce  and  contentious  words ;  * 
10.  if  tliou  minister  of  thy  substance  to  the  hungry,  and  satisfy  the  soul 
of  the  wretched ;  then  shall  thy  light  rise  through  the  gloom  (of  thy  pres- 
ent exile),  and  thy  darkness  will  be  like  noonday,  11.  and  Jehovah  will 
lead  thee  continually,  and  satisfy  thy  wants  ®  in  the  thirsty  desert,  and 
fill  thy  bones  with  marrow,  and  thou  shalt  be  like  a  well- watered  gar- 
den,^ like  a  spring  of  water,  whose  stream  never  fails.^  12.  And  thy 
sons  shall  rebuild  the  ruins  of  the  past ;  thou  shalt  raise  up  again  the 
foundations  of  former  generations,  and  they  will  call  thee  '  The  Ke- 
builder  of  the  ruins,'  **  *  The  Restorer  of  the  inhabited  streets.' 

J  Fasts  and  humiliations  were  observed  during  the  exile,  in  remembrance  of  the 
fall  of  Jerusalem  and  Judah.    Zech.  vii.  2,  fP.;  viii.  19.    Isa.  Iviii.  3-12. 

2  Or,  oppress— drive  on— all  your  workmen. 

3  Even  in  Babylon  the  richer  Jews  had  enslaved  the  poorer,  contrary  to  the  Law. 
Debtors  could  be  used  as  servants  for  six  years,  but  must  then  be  set  free.  Exod. 
xxi.  2.    Lev.  xxv.  39,  fE.    Deut.  xv.  12,  ff. 

*  Literally,  '"  the  healing  of  thy  wound." 

6  See  Tsa.  Iviii.  4.    Literally,  "evil  words." 

6  Literally,  "  soul."  ''  See  illustration,  vol.  v.  p.  278. 

8  Literally,  "deceives."  »  Literally,  "gaps." 


THE    FIFTH   GOSPEL.  349 

**  13.  If  tliou  keep  back  thy  foot  '  from  the  Sabbath  so  that  thou  dost 
not  follow  thy  business  on  My  holy  day,  if  thou  call  the  Sabbath  '  a 
delight,  the  holy  (day)  of  Jehovah,  that  is  to  be  reverenced,'  and  thyself 
honour  it  by  not  doing  thine  own  work  on  it,  or  following  thine  own 
bu5)iues.-5,  or  speaking  (vain)  words,  14.  then  thou  shalt  delight  thyself 
in  Jehovah,  and  T  will  nuike  thee  march  in  (to  thine  own  country),  over 
the  heights  of  the  land,  and  feed  thee  with  (the  fruits  of)  the  inheri- 
tance of  Jacob,  thy  father;  for  the  mouth  of  Jehovah  has  spoken  it." 

The  delay  in  the  appearance  of  God  on  behalf  of  the 
exiles  is  on  account  of  their  sins. 

"  LIX.  1.  Behold,  the  hand  of  Jehovah  is  not  too  short  to  deliver 
(you),  nor  is  His  ear  dull  so  as  not  to  hear,  2.  but  your  iniquities  have 
separated  between  you  and  your  God,  and  your  sins  have  hidden  His 
face  from  you,  that  He  will  not  hear,  3.  for  your  hands  are  foul  with 
blood,  and  your  fingers  with  iniquity ;  your  lips  speak  lies,  your  tongues 
murmur  wickedness.  4.  Every  one  accuses  the  other  on  unjust 
grounds;  no  one  pleads  (at  law)  with  honesty;  they  trust  in  words 
void  of  truth,  they  speak  falsely,  they  brood  over^  mischief  and  bring 
forth  iniquity.  5.  They  hatch  adders'  eggs,  (so  evil  are  their  doings) ; 
they  weave  spiders'  webs,  (so  vain  and  idle  are  their  schemes).  He  that 
eats  one  of  their  eggs,  (who  opposes  their  plans),  will  die,  and  if  one  of 
these  eggs  be  trodden  on,  an  adder  comes  out  of  it.  6.  Their  webs  will 
not  do  for  clothes,  neither  can  men  cover  themselves  with  their  works — 
(no  use  or  good  comes  of  them) ;  their  deeds  are  deeds  of  wickedness, 
violence  is  in  their  hands,  7.  their  feet  run  to  evil,  and  they  hasten  to 
shed  innocent  blood;  their  thoughts  of  iniquity,  desolation,  and  de- 
struction, mark  their  paths.  8.  They  do  not  know  the  way  of  peace, 
and  there  is  no  uprightness  in  their  courts;  they  make  their  paths 
crooked  (for  their  own  ends);  whoever  walks  in  them  shall  not  know 
peace. 

"9.  It  is  on  this  account  that  (God's)  judgment  (on  our  oppressors)  is 
(still)  far  from  us,  and  that  (His)  righteousness,  (bringing  deliverance), 
does  not  come  to  us;  we  wait  for  light,  but  behold  darkness;  ^  for  the 
morning  beams,  but  walk  in  thick  night.  10.  We  grope  along  the 
wall  like  blind  men,  like  men  without  eyes;  we  stumble  (even)  at  noon, 
as  if  it  were  twilight;    we  arc  in  thick  darkness, <   like  dead   meiL 

'  Isa.  Iviii.  13,  14;  lix.  1-10.  ^  Literally,  "conceive.'" 

'  Light  and  darkne:^^  =  prosperity  and  adversity. 

*  Ewald  and  Delitzsch,  by  an  emendation,  n-ad  "  among  those  full  of  life." 


350  THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL. 

11.  We  all  growl  like  bears,  (in  our  groaning),  and  mourn  like  doves  ;^ 
we  wait  for  judgment  (on  our  oppressors),  but  it  does  not  come ;  for 
deliverance,  but  it  remains  far  from  us. 

"  13.  For  our  transgressions  are  many  before  Tliee,  and  our  sins 
witness  against  us ;  our  transgressions  are  before  us ;  ^  our  sins  are 
known  to  us,  13.  even  our  apostasy  and  denial  of  Jehovah,  our  depart- 
ing away  from  our  God,  our  hard  and  false  speaking,  inventing  and 
uttering  from  the  heart  lying  words.  14.  Yea,  justice  is  thrust  back, 
and  uprightness  made  to  stand  far  off,  for  truth  has  stumbled  in  the 
market-place,  and  justice  is  not  allowed  to  enter  (the  place  of  judg- 
ment). 15.  Truth,  indeed,  is  left  behind,  (and  is  not  to  be  found 
before  our  judges),  and  he  who  keeps  himself  from  wrong-doing  is 
plundered. 

"  Jehovah  has  seen  all  this,  and  it  has  been  evil  in  His  eyes  that  there 
was  no  justice  (among  you,  between  man  and  man).  16.  He  has  seen 
that  there  was  no  man  (to  stand  up  for  the  right),  and  wondered  that 
there  was  no  one  to  come  between  (the  wrong-doer  and  the  wronged, 
no  one  to  interpose,  like  Aaron,  between  the  sound  and  the  stricken). 
(Since),  therefore,  (there  was  no  one  who  stood  up  for  Jehovah,)  His 
own  right  arm  brought  deliverance  to  Him  (from  this  state  of  things), 
and  His  own  righteousness  upheld  Him.  17.  And  He  put  on  right- 
eousness as  a  coat  of  mail,  and  the  helmet  of  victory  on  His  head, 
and  the  clothing  of  vengeance  for  a  dress,  and  clad  Himself  with  zeal 
like  a  war  cloak,  18.  and  He  will  requite  them  according  to  their  de- 
serts; wrath  to  His  enemies,  punishment  to  His  foes;  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  western  lands,'-*  retribution.  19.  And  they  will  fear  the  name  of 
Jehovah  from  the  going  down  of  the  sun,  and  His  majesty  from  its  ris- 
ing, for  He  will  come  (to  his  enemies),  like  a  flood  (that  has  been  pent 
up),  on  which  the  breath  of  Jehovah  blows,*  20.  but  as  a  Redeemer, 
to  Zion,  and  to  them  in  Jacob  that  have  turned  from  their  sins,  says 
Jehovah." 

Having  thus  delivered  His  people,  Jehovah  will  make  an 
everlasting  covenant  with  the  true  spiritual  Israel. 

"21.  And  I — this  is  My  covenant  with  them,  says  Jehovah:  My 
Spirit  that  is  upon  thee,  and  My  word  which  I  have  put  in  thy  mouth, 

1  The  note  of  the  turtle-dove  is  alwaj^s  mournful.  It  makes  a  low  sound  like  a  sigh, 
that  is  very  plaintive.  2  Literally,  "  with  us." 

'  Literally,  "islands,'"  or  "coasts."  Primarily,  the  nations  of  Asia  Minor  who 
resisted  Cyrus,  God's  agent,  but  also  all  the  heathen  peoples  who  finally  oppose 
Jehovah.  *  See  Isa.  xxx.  27, 28. 


THE    FIFTH    GOSPEL. 


351 


shall  not  depart  out  of  it,  nor  out  of  tlio  mouth  of  tliy  children,  nor 
out  of  that  of  thy  children's  children,  saith  Jehovali,  from  henceforth 
for  ever." 

The  glory  of  the  new  Jerusalem,  after  the  Return,  is  the 
subject  of  a  magnificent  ode,  fitly  appended  to  this  rehear- 
sal of  the  everlasting  bond  between  Jehovah  and  His  true 
people.  In  the  first 
stanza  the  proj^het 
dwells    on    the   re-  1  ^ 

turn  of  the  exiles. 

♦'LX.  1.  Arise/  (Je- 
rusalem), shine  (for 
joy),  for  thy  light  has 
come,  and  the  glory  of 
Jehovah  has  risen  upon 
thee.  2.  For,  behold 
(though)  darkness  cover 
the  earth,  and  gross 
darkness  the  peoples, 
Jehovah  will  shine  on 
thee  (like  the  rising 
sun)  and  His  glory  will 
shew  itself  upon  thee; 
3.  and  the  (heathen) 
nations  will  journey  to 

thy  light,  and  kings  to  the  splendour  of  thy  brightness.  4.  Lift  up 
thine  eyes,  round  about,  and  see ;  the  nations  all  gather  together  and 
come  to  thee,  and  (with  them)  thy  sons  come  from  far,  and  thy  daugh- 
ters, borne  on  their  side."  ^ 

The  heathen  world  will  he  converted  to  Jehovah,   and 
offer  gifts  in  His  temple,  now  rebuilt   at  Jerusalem. 

"5.  Then  wilt  thou  look  on  and  shine  (for  joy),  and  thy  heart  will 
throb  and  swell  for  gladness,  because  the  wealth  of  the  western  lands ' 


Children  carried  on  the  "Sidb. 


•  Isa.  Ix.  1-5. 

'  Literally,  "  sea. 


3  In  the  East,  children  are  carried  on  the  mother's  hip. 


352  THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL. 

will  turn  to  thee,  the  riches  of  the  heathen  nations  will  come  to  thee. 
6.  Great  caravans  of  camels  will  cover  (thine  open  spaces) — the  young 
he-camels  ^  of  Midian,  and  of  Ephah  ^  (its  related  tribe)  ;  its  people 
will  come  from  Sheba,  bearing  gold  and  incense,  and  raising  songs  of 
praise  to  Jehovah.  7.  All  the  flocks  of  Kedar  will  gather  themselves 
to  thee  (for  offerings  to  God);  the  rams  of  Nebaioth ^  will  be  at  thy 
service ;  they  will  be  laid,  as  well-pleasing  sacrifices,  on  My  altar,  and 
I  will  glorify  the  House  of  My  glory.  8.  Who  are  these  that  fly  like 
clouds,  and  like  doves  to  their  dove-towers  ?*  0.  Yes!  the  western 
lands  6  wait  only  for  a  sign  from  Me;  the  Tarsliish  ships®  first;  to 
bring  thy  (scattered)  sons  (0  Jerusalem),  from  afar;  their  silver  and 
their  gold  with  them,  to  the  name  of  Jehovah,  thy  God,  and  to  the 
Holy  One  of  Israel,  because  He  has  glorified  thee." 

The  magnificence  of  the  new  Jerusalem  will  be  resplen- 
dent. Gifts  brought  from  every  land  will  contribute  to  it, 
and  the  alien  races  around  Avill  be  made  to  do  the  servile 
work,  like  the  subjugated  Canaanites  formerly. 

"  10.  And  alien  races  will  build  tliy  walls,  and  their  kings  will  serve 
thee.  For  though  I  smote  thee  in  My  wrath,  I  will  have  pity  on  thee 
in  My  favour.  11.  And  thy  gates  will  remain  open  continually,  (so 
great  will  be  the  multitudes  passing  through  them,  and  so  settled  thy 
peace) :  they  will  not  be  shut  day  nor  night,  that  the  (enslaved)  hosts  of 
the  heathen  may  be  brought  into  thee,  with  their  kings,  in  a  captive 
train.  12.  For  the  nation  and  kingdom  that  will  not  serve  thee  shall 
perish ;  such  nations  shall  be  utterly  destroyed. " 

All  the  wealth  of  the  forest  will  help  to  beautify  the  new 
temple. 

"  13.  The  glory  of  Lebanon  will  come  to  thee,  the  cypress,  the  plane 
tree,  and  the  sherbin-cedar  together,  to  beautify  (Jerusalem),  the  home 

»  Up  to  nine  years  old.    The  finest  animals.    Isa.  Ix.  6-13. 

2  They  lived  on  the  east  of  the  Gulf  of  Akabah,  and  conducted  a  grent  caravan 
trade     See  Gen.  xxv.  2,  4.    Winer,  ^m/?t'.,  and  others. 

'  The  tribes  south  of  the  Dead  Sea.  Afterwards  the  Nabatheans,  with  a  kingdom 
extending  from  tlie  Gulf  of  Akabah  to  the  Hauran. 

*  Schenkel's  Bib.  Lex.,  vol.  v.  p.  474.  Dovecots  like  towers,  with  many  small 
openings  for  the  birds,  are  common  in  the  East.  Land  and  Book,  p.  268.  Neil's 
Palestine,  p.  239.    Knobel's  Jesaia,  p.  482.    There  are  over  3,000  in  Ispahan. 

6  Literally,  "isles,"  "coasts."  *  Vol.  iii.  p.  382-386. 


THE    FIFTH    GOSPEL.  353 

of  My  sanctuary,  and  to  make  the  place  of  My  feet  (where  I  rest,— the 
Holy  City)  glorious.  14.  And  the  sons  of  them '  that  (once)  afflicted 
thee  will  draw  near  thee,  bending  low ;  and  all  they  that  despised  thee 
will  cast  themselves  in  the  dust,  at  the  soles  of  thy  feet ;  and  they  will 
call  thee  '  The  City  of  Jehovah,'  '  Zion  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel.'  " 

The  prosperity  of  the  restored  State  will  be  wonderful. 

"  15.  Instead  of  being  forsaken  and  hated,  with  no  one  passing 
through  thee,  I  will  make  thee  everlastingly  glorious,  a  delight  from 
generation  to  generation.  16.  Thou  shalt  suck  the  milk  of  the  nations, 
(enjoying  their  treasures);  thou  shalt  also  suck  the  breast  of  kings, 
(receiving  their  tribute),  and  thou  shalt  know  that  I,  Jehovah,  am  thy 
Saviour,  and  that  thy  Redeemer  is  the  Holy  One  of  Israel.  17.  In- 
stead of  copper  I  will  bring  (to  thee)  gold,  and  for  iron  I  will  bring 
silver,  and  for  wood,  brass,  an'l  ?or  stones,  iron,  and  I  will  make  thy 
rulers  Peace,  and  thy  governors  Righteousness.  18.  Violence  shall 
no  more  be  heard  in  thy  land,  wasting  nor  destruction  in  thy  borders, 
and  thou  shalt  call  thy  walls  Salvation  and  thy  gates  Praise.  19.  The 
sun  shall  no  more  be  thy  light  by  day,  neither  for  brightness  shall  the 
moon  giv^e  light  to  thee;  but  Jehovah,  (Himself),  shall  be  unto  thee  an 
everlasting  light,  and  thy  God  thy  glory.  20.  Thy  sun  shall  no  more 
go  down,  nor  shall  thy  moon  withdraw  itself;  for  Jehovah  shall  be 
thine  everlasting  light,  and  the  days  of  thy  mourning  shall  be  ended. 
21.  Thy  people,  also,  shall  be  all  righteous;  they  shall  inherit  the  land 
for  ever,  (for  they  are)  a  shoot  of  My  planting,  the  Avork  of  My  hands, 
to  shew  forth  (in  them)  My  glory.  22.  The  smallest  (household)  shall 
become  a  thousand,  and  the  least  (clan)  shall  become  a  great  nation : 
1,  Jehovah,  will  hasten  it  in  its  time." 

The  opening  of  the  next  section  of  the  great  prophet 
was  destined,  centuries  later,  to  be  read  and  applied  to 
Himself  by  our  Lord,  in  the  synagogue  at  Nazareth.' 
Although,  therefore,  spoken,  primarily,  of  the  idealized 
people,  now  '^all  righteous, ^^  or  of  the  prophet,  sent  to 
speak  for  God,  there  can  be  no  daubt  that  the  Lord  Jesus, 
the  Divine  Servant  of  Jehovah,  regarded  it  as  preeminently 
describing  his  own  relations  Avith  the  Eternal  Father. 

'  Isa.  Ix.  14-32.  '  Luke  iv.  18. 

VOL.  VI.— 23 


354  THE    FIFTH    GOSPEL. 

"  LXL  1.  The  Spirit '  of  the  Lord  Jehovah  is  upon  me,  because  He 
has  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  to  the  wretched;  ^  He  has  sent 
me  to  bind  up  the  broken-hearted,  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives, 
and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound  (in  fetters);  2. 
to  proclaim  the  year  of  grace  from  Jehovah  (in  the  rescue  of  His  people 
from  Babylon),  and  the  day  of  vengeance  of  our  God  (on  their  oppress- 
ors) ;  to  comfort  all  that  mourn ;  3.  to  grant  favour  to  them  that  mourn 
in  Zion,  to  set  on  them  a  crown,  instead  of  the  ashes  (with  which  they 
had  strewn  their  heads);  to  give  them  oil  of  joy  (with  which  to  anoint 
themselves),  instead  of  raiment  of  mourning;  a  festal  robe  instead  of 
a  despairing  heart — that  men  may  call  them  terebinths,  (stately  trees), 
of  righteousness,  which  Jehovah  has  planted,  to  shew  forth  His  glory." 

They  will  rebuild  the  long-riiiiied  cities  of  Jiidah,  and 
be  served  by  the  subject  races  of  aliens  around,  they  them- 
selves being  greatly  exalted  by  God. 

"4.  And  they  will  rebuild  the  ruins  of  former  days;  they  will  re- 
store the  desolate  places  of  the  past;  they  will  rebuild  the  towns  now 
destroyed,  the  places  laid  waste  in  past  generations.  5.  And  strangers 
(of  conquered  races)  shall  feed  your  flocks,  and  shall  be  your  plough- 
men and  vinedressers  (you,  yourselves,  no  longer  needing  to  toil).  G. 
But  ye  shall  be  called  the  '  Priests  of  Jehovah;'  men  shall  call  you 
the  '  Servants  of  our  God.'  Ye  shall  eat  the  riches  of  the  heathen, 
and  exult  in  the  glory  formerly  theirs.  7.  For  your  shame  (in  the 
past)  you  will  receive  double  (honour  and  riches),  and  for  the  reproach 
(you  have  borne),  you  ^  will  rejoice  in  the  portion  (given  you);  thus 
will  you  possess  double — (the  wealth  of  the  soil  and  the  wealth  of  the 
heathen);  everlasting  joy  shall  be  yours.*  8.  For  I,  Jehovah,  love 
justice;  I  hate  wicked  violence,  and  will  give  them  their  recompense 
faithfully,  and  make  an  everlasting  covenant  with  them.  9.  And 
their  sons  will  be  known  among  the  nations,  their  offspring  among  the 
peoples;  and  all  who  see  them  will  recognize  them  as  a  race  which 
Jehovah  has  blessed." 

The  ''  Servant  of  Jehovah/'  the  personified  people  of 
God,  or  the  prophet,  now  again  appears,  rejoicing  in  the 
promises  thus  given. 

>  Isa.  Ixi.  1-9. 

9  The  idea  of  bearing  their  affliction  or  wretchedness  with  humility  and  meekness 
IB  implied.  3  Literally,  "  they."  *  Literally,  "theirs." 


THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL.  355 

**  10.  I  will  greatly  rejoice  in  Jehovah,^  my  soul  will  be  joyful  exceed- 
ingly in  my  God  ;  for  He  has  clothed  me  with  garments  of  salvation, 
He  has  covered  me  with  the  robe  of  righteousness,  as  a  bridegroom 
puts  on  a  priestly  turban,  and  as  a  bride  puts  on  her  jewels.  11.  For 
as  the  earth  shoots  forth  its  green,'  and  as  a  garden  quickens  what  is 
sown  in  it,  and  makes  it  spring  forth,  so  the  Lord  Jehovah  will  cause 
your  righteousness  to  shoot  forth,  and  renown,  in  the  eyes  of  all  the 
nations." 

The  sixty-second  chapter  brings  a  continuation  of  these 
promises,  and  an  assurance  of  their  fulfilment.  The 
prophet  will  not  keep  silence,  or  rest,  but  prays  unceas- 
ingly to  God  for  the  restoration  of  Jerusalem,  and  the 
triumphant  flowering  of  her  glory. 

"  LXII.  1.  For  Zion's  sake  I  will  not  hold  my  peace,  and  for 
Jerusalem's  sake  I  will  not  rest,  till  her  prosperity  break  forth  like  the 
morning  light,  and  her  glory  like  a  flaming  torch.  ^  2.  And  the 
(heathen)  nations  will  see  thy  prosperity,  and  all  kings  thy  glory,  and 
thou  shalt  be  called  by  a  new  name,  which  the  mouth  of  Jehovah  will 
appoint  ;  3.  and  thou  shalt  be  a  glorious  crown  in  the  hand  of  Je- 
hovah, a  royal  diadem  in  the  hand  of  thy  God.  4.  Men  will  no  more 
call  thee  'Forsaken,'  neither  shall  thy  land  any  more  be  called 
'Desolation;'  but  thou  shalt  be  called  Hephzibah,  ('My  delight  is 
in  her'),  and  thy  land  Beulah,  ('Married'):  for  Jehovah  delighteth 
in  thee,  and  thy  land  shall  be  married.  5.  For  as  a  young  man 
marries  a  virgin,  so  shall  thy  sons  marry  thee :  and  as  the  bridegroom 
rejoices  over  the  bride,  so  shall  thy  God  rejoice  over  thee." 

Watchers  stand  on  the  ruined  walls  of  Jerusalem,  look- 
ing out  for  the  approach  of  the  exiles  under  the  leadership 
of  God,  who  will  fulfil  all  His  promises  of  rebuilding  her 
in  splendour. 

"6.  I  have  set  watchmen  on  thy  (ruined)  walls,  0  Jerusalem;  they 
are  never  silent,  night  or  day.  Be  not  silent,  0  ye  who  keep  Jehovah 
in  remembrance  (of  His  promises);  7.  give  Him  no  rest,  till  He  estab- 
lish Jerusalem  and  make  her  famous  in  the  earth." 

»  Isa.  Ixi.  10,  11;  Ixii.  1-7.  '  Literally,  "sprouting." 

•  See  the  verse  before. 


356  THE    FIFTH    GOSPEL. 

There  is  no  fear  of  God  forgetting  His  word.  On  the 
contrary,  He  now  repeats  it  in  a  new  form. 

"  8.  Jehovah  has  sworn  by  Ills  right  hand/  and  by  His  mighty  arm 
— Assuredly  I  will  no  more  give  thy  corn  for  food  to  thine  enemies, 
and  aliens  shall  no  more  drink  thy  wine,  for  which  thou  hast  toiled. 
9.  No;  they  that  have  harvested  the  corn  shall  eat  it,  and  praise 
Jehovah ;  and  they  that  have  gathered  the  grapes  will  drink  the  wine 
in  My  holy  courts.'* 

Those  who  are  supposed  to  be  yet  in  Palestine  are  to 
hasten  forth  to  meet  the  exiles,  and  prepare  the  way  before 
them  as  they  return. 

"  10.  Out,  out,  through  the  gates;  prepare  a  (smooth)  road  for  the 
(returning)  people ;  throw  up,  throw  up  a  way ;  clear  aside  the  (loose) 
stones ;  ^  lift  up  a  standard  (as   a  guiding  beacon)   for   the  tribes  ! 

11.  Behold,  Jehovah  has  caused  it  to  be  proclaimed  aloud,  so  that  even 
the  end  of  the  earth  has  heard :  '  Say  ye  to  the  daughter  of  Zion,  Be- 
hold, (Jehovah),  thy  Salvation,  cometh  ;  behold,  His  reward  is  with 
Him,    and    His    recompense,    (His    restored    people),    before   Him  ! ' 

12.  And  men  shall  call  them  '  The  Holy  People,'  '  The  Redeemed  of 
Jehovah  ; '  and  thou  (Jerusalem)  shalt  be  called  *  The  Sought  Out, ' 
'  The  City  not  Forsaken.'" 

In  the  first  six  verses  of  ths  sixty-third  chapter  Jeho- 
vah is  represented  as  having  executed  fierce  vengeance 
on  Edom,  and  as  returning  victorious  from  it.  The 
enemies  of  the  restored  Israel,  of  whom  Edom  was  one 
of  the  most  bitter,  are  thus  shewn  to  have  been  crushed, 
to  secure  the  peace  of  the  new  community,  and  to  exhibit 
the  Divine  vengeance  on  tliose  who  had  been  against  it. 

1  Isa.  Ixii.  8-12. 

2  Just  before  a  great  prince  was  expected,  a  few  years  ago,  the  road  for  forty  miles, 
oetween  Jerusalem  and  Nablus— though  generally  in  such  a  state  as  to  make  any  by- 
path preferable— was  made  perfectly  smooth  and  in  good  order  throughout.  The 
stones  were  gathered  out,  the  br.ikcn-down  embankments  cast  up,  and  shelving  and 
slippery  ledges  of  rock  on  the  brinks  of  precipices,  covered  with  a  thin  coating  of 
earth. 


THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL.  35? 

"  LXIII.  1.  Who  is  this  '  lliat  tomes  from  Edom,  in  bright-red  gar- 
ments '  from  Bozrah  ?  This  (Great  One),  splendid  in  His  apparel, 
swaying  to  and  fro '  in  the  fulness  of  His  strength  ?  '  It  is  I,  who 
speak*  in  righteousness,  mighty  to  save.' 

'*  2.  '  Why  art  Thou  red  in  Thine  apparel,  and  why  are  Thy  gar- 
ments like  his  that  treads  in  the  wine-press  ? ' 

"3.  '  I  have  trodden  the  winc-prcss  alone ;  of  the  peoples  there  was 
none  with  Me,  so  I  trode  them  in  my  anger,  and  trampled  them  in  my 
fury;  and  their  blood*  was  sprinkled  on  my  garments,  and  I  have 
stained  all  my  raiment.  4.  For  the  day  of  vengeance  was  in  my  heart, 
and  the  year  of  my  releasing  (my  exiles)  was  come.  5.  And  I  looked 
and  there  was  no  helper;  I  was  amazed,  but  no  one  came  to  my  aid; 
and  therefore  my  own  arm  was  my  help,  and  my  fury  supported  me. 
G.  And  I  stamped  upon  the  people  in  my  anger,  and  crushed  them  to 
pieces  in  my  fury,  and  poured  out  *  their  blood  on  the  earth.' " 

From  this  fierce  song  of  trinmpli  in  battle  we  pass  to  the 
still  waters  of  prayer  and  praise.  Thanks,  confession,  and 
supplication  mingle  in  a  gentle  stream  Avhich  is  in  striking 
contrast  to  what  has  just  preceded.  The  mighty  deeds  of 
Jehovah  for  His  people  call  for  songs  of  gratitude. 

"  7.  I  will  celebrate  the  lovingkindnesses  of  Jehovah,  and  His  mighty 
deeds,  according  to  all  that  fie  has  shewn  towards  lis,  and  His  great 
goodness  towards  the  house  of  Israel,  which  He  has  shewn  them 
according  to  His  mercy,  and  according  to  the  multitude  of  His  loving- 
kindnesses.  8.  They  are,  indeed,  said  He,  My  people,  sons  that  will 
not  break  their  plighted  troth,  and  (so)  He  became  their  Saviour,^ 
9,  In  all  their  troubles  (in  the  wilderness)  He  also  was  troubled,  and 
the  Angel  of  His  presence  saved  them  ;  ^  in  His  love  and  His  long- 
suffering  He,  Himself,  delivered  them,  and  He  nursed  and  cherished 
them  (in  His  arms) "  all  the  days  of  old. 

»  Isa.  Ixiii.  1-9. 

2  Warriors  had  red  clothing.  Nah.  ii.  4.  Cyrop.,  VI.  iv.  1.  Val.  Max.,  H.  vi.  2. 
See  vol.  V.  p.  116. 

3  "  Tos.sing  His  head  "—Qesenius  ;  others,  "  bending  to  and  fro." 

*  =  Promise.  *  Literally,  "  sap." 

«  Literally,  "  brought  down."  ^  He  saved  them  from  Egypt. 

•  Tlie  pillar  of  fire  and  cloud  in  which  Jehovah  led  them  on. 

»  Literally,  "bareund  carried  them."  See  Isa.  xlvi.  3,  4.  Exod.  xix,  4.  Num.  xL 
12.    Deut.  i.  31.    The  full  idea  is  that  given  above. 


358  THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL. 

"  10.  But  they  rebelled,  and  grieved  His  Holy  Spirit;  so  He  turned 
to  be  their  enemy,  and  fought  against  them  J  11.  Then  men  remem- 
bered the  days  of  old — (the  days  of  Moses) — saying,  '  Where  is  He  who 
led  them  through  the  sea  after  the  shepherds  of  His  flock  ?  Where  is 
He  who  put  within  them  His  Holy  Spirit  ?  12.  He  who  caused  His 
glorious  arm  to  be  at  the  right  hand  of  Moses,  dividing  the  waters 
before  them,"  to  make  Himself  an  everlasting  name  ?  13.  That  led 
them  through  the  floods  (of  the  Jordan),  as  a  horse  on  the  (smooth) 
pasture-land,  so  that  they  did  not  stumble  ?  14.  As  the  ox  goes  down 
(from  the  bare  mountain)  to  the  (fertile)  valley,  so  the  Spirit  of  Je- 
hovah brought  Israel  to  his  place  of  rest  ;^  so  didst  Thou  guide  Thy 
people,  to  make  Thyself  an  everlasting  name." 

Israel  now  speaks,  or,  perhaps,  the  prophet  in  its  name. 

"  15.  Look  down  from  heaven,  and  behold  from  the  habitation  of 
Thy  holiness  and  of  Thy  glory !  Where  are  (now)  Thy  zeal  and  Thy 
deeds  of  might,  (shewn  thus  gloriously  in  ancient  days)?  The  yearning 
of  Thy  heart  *  and  Thy  mercies  restrain  themselves  towards  me,  (in 
the  long  delay  of  deliverance  from  Babylon).  16.  Thou  art  truly  our 
Father,  for  Abraham  (is  long  dead)  and  knows  us  not,  and  (so  is) 
Israel,  (our  father  Jacob),  and  does  not  trouble  himself  about  us.* 
Thou,  0  Jehovah,  art  our  Father;  'Our  Redeemer '  has  from  of  old 
been  Thy  name.  17.  Why,  0  Jehovah,  dost  Thou  make  us  wander 
from  Thy  ways,  and  harden  our  heart  so  that  we  do  not  fear  Thee  (by 
thus  delaying)  ? '    Return  (to  us),  for  the  sake  of  Thy  servants,  the 

»  Through  Assyria  and  Babylon  especially.    Isa.  Ixiii.  10-17. 
5  Knobel  refers  this  clause  to  cleaving  waters  out  of  the  rock— but  you  cleave  the 
rock,  not  the  water.  ^  Canaan. 

♦  Literally,  "  sounding  of  thy  bowels." 

'  Cheyne  sees  in  these  clauses  a  hint  of  some  popular  belief  in  the  intercession  of 
the  saints  of  the  race  for  their  descendants.  He  quotes,  "  Rachel  weeping  for  her 
children"  (Jer.  xxxi.  15).  But  this  is  surely  a  mere  poetical  figure  of  surpassing 
grandeur.  So  also  the  instance  of  Lazarus  with  Dives  is  only  a  part  of  a  parable 
(Luke  xvi.  22).  In  all  ages  there  has  been  doubtless  a  hope  that  the  holy  dead  might 
pleadfor  the  interests  of  their  living  friends,  or  descendants,  or  fellow-believers  ;  but 
it  seems  dangerous,  and  hardly  well-founded,  to  seek  illustrations  of  this  fond  hope 
in  the  words  of  Scripture.  Cheyne  translates  the  present  passage,  "  Abraham  takes 
no  notice  of  jus,  and  Israel  (Jacob)  does  not  recognize  us  ;"  but  this,  we  venture  to 
think,  is  scarcely  the  most  natural  interpretation. 

•  For  a  moment  it  seems  as  if  Jehovah,  by  His  vvithdrawing  from  Israel,  were 
leading  it  to  evil.  It  is  the  world-old  problem  of  the  origin  of  evil.  Their  conduct 
must  have  been  permitted,  they  say,  by  Jehovah  ;  He  could  have  prevented  it,  and  it 
is  the  cause  of  their  being  chastened. 


THE    FIFTH    GOSPEL.  359 

tribes  which  are  Thine.'  18.  Thy  holy  people  "  were  in  possession '  (of 
their  land)  only  for  a  little  while,*  (and  now)  our  adversaries  have 
trodden  down  Thy  sanctuary.  19.  We  have  become  as  if  Thou  hadst 
not  ruled  over  us  from  of  old,  as  if  we  had  never  been  called  by  Thy 
name!" 

The  prophet  prays  that  Jehovah  would,  at  last,  appear, 
to  crush  the  oppressor,  and  deliver  His  people. 

"  LXIV.  1.  0  that  Thou  wouldst  rend  the  heavens,  that  Thou 
wouldst  come  down  ;  (0)  that  the  mountains  trembled  before  Thee ; 
2.  (that  they  became)  as  broom '  which  the  fire  consumes,  as  water 
which  fire  causes  to  boil — to  make  known  Thy  (great)  name  to  Thine 
adversaries,  that  the  heathen  may  tremble  at  Thy  presence,  3.  when 
Thou  doest  terrible  things  (against  them),  for  which  we  had  not  hoped. 
O  that  Thou  wouldst  come  down,  that  the  mountains  trembled  at  Thy 
presence !  4.  For,  from  of  old,  men  have  not  heard,  or  perceived  by 
the  ear,  or  sqen  with  the  eye,  a  God  beside  Thee,  who  did  such  glorious 
things  for  him  that  trusted  in  Him.  5.  Thou  meetest  him'  who  re- 
joices to  do  righteousness,  who  thinks  of  Thy  ways.  Behold,  Thou  art 
wroth,  and  we  (confess  that  we)  have  sinned  ;  we  are  now  long  in  this 
plight:  shall  we  (yet)  be  saved?'  6.  We  are  all  become  as  the  unclean 
(heathen),  and  all  our  righteous  deeds  are  like  a  polluted  cloth,  and  we 
have  altogether  faded  like  a  withered  leaf,  our  iniquities  sweep  us  off, 
as  the  wind  (carries  away  the  dry  leaf).  7.  Xo  one  calls  upon  Thy 
name,  no  one  rouses  himself  to  take  hold  of  Thee,  for  Thou  hast 
hidden  Thy  face  from  us,  and  givest  us  up  into  the  power"  of  our 
iniquities  ! 

"8.  Yet,  0  Jehovah,  Thou  art  our  Father:  we  are  the  clay,  and 
Thou  our  potter;  we  are,  all,  the  work  of  Thy  hand.  9.  Be  not  wroth 
to  the  uttermost,  0  Jehovah,  neither  remember  (our)  iniquity  for  ever! 
Behold,  consider,  we  beseech  Thee,  we  are  all  Thy  people!  10.  Thy 
holy  cities  have  become  pastures  (for  flocks),  Zion  has  become  grazing 

»  Literally,  "  Thy  inheritance."  2  people  separated  by  God  for  Himself. 

'  Isa.  Ixiii.  18,  19  ;  Ixiv.  1-10. 

*  Text  doubtful.  *  Or,  brushwood  or  stubble. 

«  "O  that  thou  wouldst  meet."  Ewald  and  Stier.  But  this  seems  opposed  to 
what  follows. 

^  A  corrupt  text.  De  Wette'e  rendering  is,  "  Behold  Thou  wast  wroth  when  we  in 
foretimes  sinned  in  Thy  ways,  but  yet  Thou  didst  save  us."  The  sense  in  any  case 
Ib  only  conjectural.    I  give  the  rendering  of  Delitzsch. 

•  "Hand." 


360  THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL. 

ground,  Jerusalem  a  desert  !  11.  Our  holy  '  and  glorious  House,  in 
which  our  fathers  praised  Thee,  has  become  fuel  for  fire,  and  all  that 
was  our  delight  is  laid  waste.  12.  Wilt  Thou,  in  spite  of  all  these 
things,  keep  Thyself  back,  0  Jehovah,  wilt  Thou  be  silent,  and  give 
us  up  to  the  sorest  affliction?  " 

To  this  toucliing  prayer,  Jehovah  vouchsafes  an  answer. 

"  LXV.  1.  I  have  been  ready  to  hear  them  that  did  not  enquire  of 
Me ;  I  have  been  near  at  hand  to  them  who  did  not  seek  Me.  I  said, 
'  Here  I  am,'  '  Here  I  am,'  to  a  nation  that  did  not  call  upon  My  name. 
*2.  I  spread  out  My  hands  all  the  day  to  a  rebellious  people,  which 
walked  in  a  way  that  was  not  good,  after  their  own  thoughts;  3.  a 
people  who  provoke  Me  to  anger,  continually,  to  My  face ;  who  sacri- 
fice in  the  gardens,'-^  and  burn  incense  on  (altars  of)  bricks;  ^  who  sit  in 
the  (rock)  tombs,  (to  get  revelations  from  demons  and  the  dead),*  and 
sleep  through  tlie  night  in  secret  places,^  to  (obtain  dreams  from  the 
gods);^  who  eat  the  flesh  of  swine,^  and  broth  of  abominations  is  in 
their  dishes  (at  their  idol  feasts);  who  say,  'Stand  by  thyself,  come  not 
near  me,  for  I  am  holier  than  thou'  (by  these  sacrifices,  and  must  not 
be  approached  by  the  '  unclean  ').  These  are  smoke  in  my  nose,  an 
ever  burning  fire;  (so  glows  and  smokes  My  anger  against  them).  6. 
Behold,  all  this  (their  doing)  is  written  before  Me,  (so  that  I  cannot 
forget  it).  I  will  not  keep  silence  till  I  have  given  them  their  due, 
given  their  due  into  their  bosom.  ^  7.  (I  will  requite)  at  the  same  time, 
says  Jehovah,  your  iniquities  (0  ye  exiles),  and  the  iniquities  of  your 
fathers,  who  burned  incense  on  the  mountains,  and  dishonoured  Me 
upon  the  hills!  Yes!  I  will  measure  out  their  due,  first,  into  their 
bosom  (before  I  be  at  peace  with  them)  !  " 

1  Isa.  Ixiv.  11,  12  ;  Ixv.  1-7.  *■'  Isa.  Ivii.  5  ;  i.  29. 

3  The  top  of  the  altars  was  of  brick,  contrary  to  the  command,  Exod.  xx.  24,  25. 
See  Isa.  Ixv.  3.    Ovid.,  Fast.,  ii.  3.5.    They  are  here  contemptuously  called  "  bricks." 

*  Isa.  xiii.  21  ;  xxxiv.  14. 

s  Perhaps  in  artificial  or  natural  caves,  where  "  mysteries  "  were  celebrated.  See 
Jerome,  on  the  text,  and  also  the  Septuagint. 

6  Isa.  Ivii.  5.    Chwolson,  Die  Ssadaer,  vol.  ii.  p.  332. 

7  Forbidden  by  the  Law  (Isa.  Ixvi.  17 ;  Lev.  xi.  7),  especially  in  a  case  like  this, 
when  the  swine  were  offered  in  sacrifice.  Sacrifices  of  swine  were  very  common  in 
antiquity.  Spenc.  de  legg.  Ilebrcfor.  ritt.,  p.  137.  Movers'  Phonizier,  vol.  i.  pp.  218, 
ff.    Pawsaw.,  VI.  ii.  2.    The  Babylonians  offered  swine.    Chwolson. 

8  See  vol.  v,  p.  347. 


THE    FIFTH    GOSPEL.  361 

But  though  the  obstinately  ungodly  will  perish,  a  rem- 
nant of  faithful  ones  will  be  saved. 

"  8.  Yet,  thus  says  Jehovah : '  As,  when  the  new  wine  is  in  the  cluster, 
men  say,  '  Do  not  destroy  it,  for  a  blessing  is  in  it,'  so  will  I  do  for  the 
sake  of  My  servants,  that  I  may  not  destroy  them  all.  0.  I  will  lead 
forth  from  Jacob  a  seed,  and  from  Judah  inheritors  of  (Canaan),  My 
mountain,  and  My  chosen  ones  shall  inherit  it,  and  My  servants  shall 
dwell  in  it.  10.  And  (the  plains  of)  Sharon  ^  (in  the  west)  will  be  a 
pasture  for  sheep  and  goats,  and  the  valley  of  Achor '  a  grazing  place 
for  cattle,  to  the  people  who  have  sought  Me. 

"  11.  But  as  for  you,  (among  the  exiles),  who  have  forsaken  (Me), 
Jehovah;  that  never  think  of  My  holy  mountain,  but  set  in  order  a 
feast-table  to  (Baal)  Gad — (the  god  of  good  fortune)  *  and  fill  up  drink 
offerings  to  Meni,^  (the  goddess  of  destiny):  12.  I  have  appointed  you 
to  die  by  the  sword ;  ye  shall  all  bow  yourselves  to  the  slaughter  ;  be- 
cause I  have  called  and  ye  have  not  answered,  I  have  spoken  and  ye 
did  not  give  ear,  but  did  evil  in  My  eyes,  and  chose  that  in  which  I 
had  no  pleasure.  13.  Therefore,  thus  says  the  Lord  Jehovah  :  Behold, 
My  servants  shall  eat,  but  ye  shall  be  hungry;  behold,  My  servants 
shall  drink,  but  ye  shall  be  thirsty;  behold.  My  servants  shall  rejoice, 
but  ye  shall  be  ashamed ;  14.  behold,  My  servants  shall  sing  aloud  for 
joy,  but  ye  shall  cry  out  for  a  broken  heart,  and  wail  for  sadness  of 
spirit.  15.  And  ye  shall  leave  your  name  to  My  chosen,  to  be  used  as 
a  curse  by  them,®  for  the  Lord  Jehovah  will  slay  thee.  But  He  will 
call  His  servants  by  another  name,  16.  so  that  he  who  invokes  bless- 
ings on  himself,  or  the  land,  will  do  so  by  the  name  of  (Jehovah),  the 
faithful  God ;  because  the  old  distresses  will  be  forgotten  (amidst  the 

'  Isa.  Ixv.  8-16. 

2  The  plains  of  Sharon  (Sharon  means  a  plain)  extended  inland  from  the  coast 
between  Lydda  and  Carmel.  It  is  a  wide  sweep  of  rolling  country,  s^uited  for  either 
pasture  or  tillage.  The  German  village  of  "  Sarona,"  near  Joppa,  is  surrounded  by 
beautiful  fields,  and  settlentents  equally  prosperous  flourish  near  Caesarea— both  on 
the  plain  of  Sharon. 

3  The  valley  of  Achor  is  the  present  Wady  Kelt,  formerly  the  north  boundary  of 
Judah. 

*  The  worship  of  Bel  or  Baal  is  elsewhere  charged  against  the  exiles.  Isa.  Ivii.  9. 
Feasts  were  part  of  the  Babylonian  worship.  "Bel  and  the  Dragon,"  3.  Diod. 
Sic,  ii.  9. 

'  Lenormant  speaks  of  a  Babylonian  god  called  "great  Manu."  Gad  may  be  the 
Hebrew  equivalent  of  Guttav,  the  Babylonian  name  for  Jupiter.  Sayce,  Trans.  Soc. 
Bib.  Arch.,  vol.  iii.  pp.  170-1. 

•  As  if  they  should  say,  "  May  your  fate  be  like  that  of  so  and  so." 


362  THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL. 

glory  ye  enjoy),  and  they  shall  be  hidden  from  My  eyes,  (so  that  no 
repetition  of  them  need  be  feared)." 

This  glory  of  the  restored  Israel  will  exceed  all  that 
language  can  describe. 

"  17.  For  behold,  I  (as  it  were)  create  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth,'- 
and  the  former  (heaven  and  earth)  will  not  be  remembered  or  come 
into  mind.  18.  (A  new  state  of  things  will  begin)  and  ye  will  be  glad 
and  rejoice  for  ever  in  that  which  I  (thus)  create.  For,  behold,  I  will 
make  Jerusalem  a  rejoicing  and  her  people  a  joy.  19.  And  I  (Jeho- 
vah, Myself)  will  rejoice  over  Jerusalem  and  joy  in  My  people,  and  the 
voice  of  weeping  will  be  no  more  heard  in  her,  nor  the  voice  of  crying. 
20.  There  shall  no  more  be  carried  out  from  her  (the  corpse  of)  an  infant 
of  days,  or  of  an  old  man  who  has  not  filled  his  course ;  for  he  that  dies 
at  a  hundred  years  old  shall  be  regarded  as  a  youth,  and  the  sinner 
(who  was  wont  to  be  cut  off  early)  shall  be  struck  with  the  punishment 
of  death  when  a  hundred  years  old.  21.  And  they  shall  build  houses 
and  inhabit  them,  they  shall  plant  vineyards  and  eat  the  fruit  of  them. 
22.  They  shall  not  build  and  another  inhabit,  they  shall  not  plant  and 
another  eat,  for  the  days  of  My  people  shall  be  like  the  days  of  a  tree, 
and  My  chosen  ones  shall  long  enjoy  the  works  of  their  hands.  23. 
They  will  not  toil  for  nothing,  or  bring  forth  children,  (to  have  them 
cut  off)  by  sudden  trouble,  for  they  will  be  the  seed  of  the  blessed  of 
Jehovah,  and  their  offspring  (will  remain)  with  them.  24.  And  it  will 
come  to  pass  that  before  they  call  I  will  answer,  while  they  are  yet 
speaking  I  will  hear.  25.  The  wolf  and  the  lamb  shall  feed  together, 
and  the  lion  shall  eat  straw  like  the  ox,  and  dust  will  be  the  food  of 
the  serpent.  They  shall  not  harm  nor  destroy  in  all  My  holy  mountain 
(of  Canaan),  says  Jehovah. "  '^ 

But  the  mass  of  the  exiles,  in  spite  of  the  preaching  of 
the  prophets,  continued  cold  and  indifferent  to  spiritual 
religion,  joining  heathen  practices  with  the  recognition  of 
Jehovah  ;  and  while  ready  to  rebuild  a  temple  to  Him  at 
Jerusalem,  if  restored  to  their  own  land,  remained  strangers 

1  Cheyne  understands  by  this,  tliat  the  prophet  expects  Nature  itself  will  be  regen- 
erated. But  when  is  this  to  be  ?  Better,  surely,  understand  the  words  as  meaning 
that  the  defects  and  shame  of  the  past  will  be  done  away,  and  a  new  state  of  things — 
holy  and  happy— introduced.    Isa.  btv.  17-25.  =  Isa.  xi.  6-9.    Gen.  iii.  14 


THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL.  363 

to  true  religion.  The  last  chapter  of  Isaiah,  therefore, 
opens  with  a  passage  recalling  the  language  of  other 
prophets  and  of  some  of  the  Psalms,  in  its  depreciation  of 
merely  formal  worship,  and  its  demands  for  a  broken  heart 
and  contrite  spirit  as  the  sacrifices  most  acceptable  to  God.' 
If  Jehovah  accepted  a  temple  at  their  hands  at  all,  they  are 
to  understand  that  it  is  not  because  He  required  it,  or  re- 
garded it  as  an  adequate  honour,  but  only  in  accommodation 
to  their  weakness  and  human  needs.  Sacrifices  offered  by 
others  than  the  contrite  are  worthless  and  even  hateful  to 
Him,  though  He  accepts  those  presented  by  the  truly 
worthy. ' 

"LXVI.  1.  Thus  says  Jehovah:'  The  heavens  are  My  throne  and 
the  earth  is  My  footstool.*  What  kind  of  house  would  ye  build  for  Me? 
What  manner  of  place  for  My  rest?  2.  For  all  these  (the  heavens 
and  the  earth),  has  My  hand  made ;  thus  they  all  rose  into  being,  says 
Jehovah.  But  on  this  man  will  I  look;  on  him  who  is  humble  and  of 
a  contrite  spirit,  and  trembles  at  My  word." 

Sacrifices  offered  by  the  ungodly  are  an  abomination, 
even  when  they  are  such  as  the  Law  prescribes. 

"3.  He  that  slaughters  an  ox  (I  will  not  say  '  sacrifices '),  if  he  be 
not  My  true  worshipper,  is  (hateful  to  Me)  as  one  that  kills  a  man  ;  he 
that  sacrifices  a  sheep  is  no  better  than  if  he  broke  a  dog's  neck,  (and 
offered  Me  the  unclean  beast  *) ;  he  that  presents  a  meal  offering  is  no 
better  than  if  he  offered  Me  swine's  blood ;  ^  he  that  burns  incense  is 
no  better  than  if  he  bowed  to  an  idol.  As  they  have  chosen  their  own 
ways  and  their  soul  has  delighted  in  their  abominations,  4.  so  I  will 
choose  calamities  ^  for  them  and  bring  their  fears  upon  them,  because 
I  called  and  no  one  answered,  I  spoke  and  no  one  gave  ear,  but  they 
did  what  was  evil  in  My  eyes,  and  chose  that  in  which  I  had  no  pleas- 
ure." 

»  Pb.  li.  17.    Isa.  Ivii.  15.    Ps.  xxxiv.  18.    Ps.  1.  8-15. 

'  Isa.  chaps.  Ivi.  and  Ix.:  Ixvi.  20.     See  also  Jeremiah  and  Eaekiel,  passim. 

*  Isa.  Ixvi.  1-4.  ♦  1  Kings  viii.  27.    2  Chron.  vi.  18.  »  Eccles.  ix.  4. 

•  Lev.  xj.  7.  ^  Literally,  "  freaks  (of  fortune)." 


364  THE   FIFTH   GOSPEL. 

Judgment  will  be  let  loose  on  these  mockers.  The 
prophet  already  hears,  in  spirit,  the  cry  of  their  punish- 
ment, from  the  rebuilt  Temple  in  Jerusalem. 

"5.  Hear  the  word  of  Jehovah,  ye  that  tremble  at  His  speech.^  Your 
brethren  that  hate  you,  (the  heathen  and  ungodly  among  the  exiles), 
and  that  cast  you  out  for  My  name's  sake,  (telling  you  to  be  gone  to 
Palestine),  have  said  (in  contemptuous  derision),  '  Let  Jehovah  glorify 
Himself,  that  we  may  see  your  Joy  ! ' 

'•But  they  will  be  brought  to  shame,  (for,  lo,  I  hear)  6.  a  sound  of 
tumult^  from  the  city  (Jerusalem),  a  sound  from  the  Temple,  the  sound 
of  Jehovah,  who  renders  their  deserts  to  His  enemies  !  " 

The  return  of  the  exiles,  and  the  restoration  of  Jerusa- 
lem, will  be  effected  with  marvellous  suddenness  by  Jeho- 
vah, and,  as  He  has  already  promised.  He  will  turn  to  the 
holy  city  the  wealth  of  the  heathen. 

"7.  Before  she  (Jerusalem)  travailed,  she  brought  forth;  before  her 
pains  came  she  was  delivered  of  a  man-child  ! "  8.  Who  has  heard 
anything  like  this  ?  Who  has  seen  anything  like  it  ?  Were  the  whole 
people  of  a  country  ever  brought  forth  in  a  day,  or  was  a  nation  ever 
born  at  once  ?*  But  as  soon  as  Zion  travails,  a  nation,  her  restored 
children,  will  at  once  be  born.  9.  Shall  I  bring  to  the  birth,  and 
not  cause  to  bring  forth  ?  says  Jehovah ;  shall  1  who  bring  to  the  birth, 
hinder  its  being  completed?  says  thy  God;  (having  done  so  much,  will 
I  not  not  perfect  My  work  ?) " 

The  prospect  demands  rejoicing  from  all  among  the 
exiles  wlio  love  Jerusalem. 

"10.  Rejoice  ye  with  Jerusalem,  and  be  glad  with  her,  all  ye  that 
love  her ;  rejoice  greatly  with  her,  all  ye  that  mourn  for  her  (present 

^  Isa.  Ixvi.  5-10.  ^  Literally,  "crushing." 

3  Gesenius  quotes  an  Arab  proverb,  "  Sweeter  than  the  birth  of  a  boy."  He  says 
that  the  Arabs  in  old  times  used  to  bury  female  infants  alive.  Jesaia^  vol.  ii.  p.  300. 
Laurence  Oliphant  speaks  of  a  mother  pitching  her  baby  into  the  road,  when  she 
found  it  was  a  girl :  the  poor  creature  being  thus  made  a  cripple  for  life.  He  saw  the 
child  limi)ing  about,  and  learned  the  cause,  on  inquiry.  Harper  was  told  by  an  old 
Bedouin  midwife,  that  mothers  would  not  let  girls  live,  and  got  her  to  twist  their  necks 
when  they  were  born.  *  The  sudden  repeopling  of  Jerusalem  looked  like  this. 


THE   FIFTH    GOSPEL.  365 

desolation),  11.  tliat  ye  may  drink  from  the  full  breasts  of  her  con- 
solations and  be  satisfied;  that  ye  may  drink  eagerly,  and  delight 
yourselves  from  the  dropping  fulness  of  her  glory  J  12.  For  thus  says 
Jehovah,  Behold,  I  will  cause  peace  to  stream'^  through  her  like  a  river, 
and  the  glory  of  tlie  nations  like  an  overflowing  flood,  and  then  ye  shall 
suck  (the  rich  plenty  of  her  bosom),  ye  shall  be  l)ornc  on  the  sides 
of  the  nations,  like  children.^  and  dandled  on  their  knees.  13.  As 
one  *  whom  his  mother  comf orteth  (in  need  and  pain),  so  will  I  comfort 
you;  yes,  in  Jerusalem  shall  ye  be  comforted.  14.  And  when  ye 
see  (all  your  prosperity),  your  heart  will  rejoice,  and  your  bones  be 
vigorous  as  young  grass,  for  the  Hand  of  Jehovah  will  make  itself 
known  in  His  servants,  but  He  will  deal  fiercely  with  His  enemies." 

Now  follows  the  judgment  to  be  thus  executed. 

"  15.  For,  behold,  Jehovah  will  come  in  fire,  with  His  chariots,  like  the 
rushing  storm,  to  turn  His  anger  in  fury  (on  His  enemies),  and  His 
chastisement  in  flames  of  fire.  IG.  For  by  fire  and  by  sword  will  Je- 
hovah hold  judgment  with  all  flesh,  and  those  slain  by  Him  will  be 
many.  17.  They  that  purify  and  consecrate  themselves  to  enter  the 
gardens  (where  idols  are  worshipped),  following  the  officiating  priest,* 
(or  standing  behind  the  Ashe  rah) ;  that  eat  swine's  flesh  and  other  un- 
clean abominations,  and  even  the  field-mouse,^  shall  be  destroyed  to- 
gether, says  Jehovah.  18.  For  I  (will  punish)  their  works  and  their 
thoughts ;  and  the  time  will  come  when  I  will  gather  all  nations  and 
tongues,  and  they  shall  assemble  and  see  My  glory.  19.  And  I  will 
work  (great  judgments  on  my  enemies),  as  a  sign  (of  My  power  and 
majesty),  and  I  will  send  those  of  them  that  escape,  (as  messengers)  to 
the  heathen  nations — to  Tarshish,  Phut,  and  Lud,  that  draw  the  bow ; 
to  Tubal,  and  Javan,  and  the  far-off  coasts  and  islands  of  the  Western 

1  Knobel  translates  the  clause,  "and  renew  your  youth  from  the  increase  of  her 
glory."    Isa.  Ixvi.  11-19.  ^  Literally,  "turn.'" 

3  Isa.  Ix.  4.  Children  are  very  often  carried  on  the  hips,  sitting  astride.  See 
p.  351.  *  Literally,  "  a  man." 

s  This  is  a  paraphrase  of  a  difficult  clause.  It  seems  most  in  keeping  with  the  text. 
Some,  however,  think  they  walked  after  the  image  of  some  god  or  goddess.  On  the 
festival  of  Istar  or  of  Tammuz,  the  figure  of  the  god  was  borne  in  procession,  adorned 
with  jewels  and  robes  of  rich  material,  attended  by  her  maids  of  honour,  "  Pleasure  " 
or  "  Lust,"  and  they  went  in  procession  to  meet  the  mourners  bearing  the  body  of 
the  dead  Tammuz.  St.  Chad  Boscawen,  from  a  cuneiform  record.  Academy,  vol. 
xiv.  p.  91. 

«  The  ancients  fattened  and  ate  this  creature.  It  was  unclean.  Perhaps  the  jer- 
boa is  meant  in  the  text.    It  is  still  eaten  by  the  Arabs.    Lev.  xi.  29. 


366  THE  FIFTH  GOSPEL. 

Sea,  that  have  not  heard  of  My  great  doings  nor  seen  My  glory — and 
they  shall  make  known  among  the  heathen  My  majesty.  20.  And,'  as 
a  gift  to  Jehovah,  these  heathen  nations  will  bring  all  your  brethren, 
(scattered  among  them),  out  of  all  the  nations,  on  horses,  and  in  char- 
iots and  litters,  and  on  mules  and  dromedaries,  to  My  holy  mountain, 
to  Jerusalem,  says  Jehovah,  as  the  children  of  Israel  used  to  bring  the 
meal-offering  in  a  clean  vessel,  to  the  House  of  Jehovah;  21.  and  I 
will  take  some  of  them,  also,  for  priests  and  for  Levites,  says  Jehovah.^ 
22.  For  as  the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth  which  I  will  make,  shall 
remain  for  ever  before  Me,  says  Jehovah,  so  shall  your  seed  and  your 
name  remain,  (0  Israel).  23.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  from  one 
new  moon  to  another,  and  from  one  Sabbath  to  another,  all  flesh  will 
come  to  worship  before  Me  (in  Jerusalem),  says  Jehovah. 

"24.  And  (when  they  come,  thus,)  they  will  go  forth  (from  the  city) 
and  look  on  the  carcasses  of  the  men  that  rebelled  against  Me,  for  their 
worm  shall  not  die,  neither  shall  their  fire  be  quenched,  and  they  shall 
be  a  horror  to  all  flesh. " 

»  Isa.  Ixvi.  20-24. 

2  He  will  not  restrict  Himself  to  the  tribe  of  Levi  or  the  sons  of  Aaron.  Member! 
of  the  returned  "diepersioa"  will  be  taken  for  the  holy  offices. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

REDEMPTION    DRAWIN^G   NIGH. 

The  utterances  of  the  prophets  of  the  Exile  bring 
vividly  before  us  the  condition  of  their  brethren  during 
the  Captivity.  Their  treatment  seems  to  have  varied  in 
different  localities  and  at  different  times,  but,  at  least  in 
the  earlier  years,  the  iron  of  slavery  entered  deeply  into 
their  souls.  They  seem  to  have  been  settled  in  colonies 
here  and  there,  over  the  land,  working  at  all  forms  of  bond 
service,  but  allowed  free  intercourse  with  each  other,  and 
retaining  their  distinct  organization  and  customs,  to  a 
great  extent,  as  in  Judaea.  Continued  restlessness  and 
plotting,  however,  brought  heavy  punishment  on  their 
royal  family  and  leading  priests  and  nobles,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Exile.*  Contempt  and  hatred,  moreover,  seem 
to  have  been  lavished  on  a  race  so  intractable,  culminating 
not  unfrequently  in  the  dungeon,  or  even  in  death.*  They 
are  spoken  of  as  often  robbed  and  spoiled,  snared  in  pits, 
and  hidden  in  prisons.^  Pitiless  cruelty/  unrestrained 
by  law,^  was  too  common,  though,  as  a  whole,  their  posi- 
tion was  so  favourable,  that  very  few  would,  in  the  end, 
leave  Babylonia,  when  free  to  do  so,  but,  in  spite  of  the 
exhortations  of  the  prophets,  made  it  their  permanent 
home. 

1  Isa.  xliii.  28  ;  xlvii.  6.    Jer.  lii.  11.  2  Isa.  xiv.  3. 

»  Isa.  xlii.  22.  ♦  Isa.  xlyii.  6. 

«  Isa.  li.  18.    Jer.  1.  7-17.    Ps.  cxxiv.,  cxxix.,  cxxxyii. 


368  REDEMPTION    DRAWIJ^G    NIGH. 

Gradually,  however,  things  improved.  The  harsh  treat- 
ment of  the  earlier  years  of  the  Exile  more  or  less  died 
away,  for  the  Babylonians  and  Jews  were  of  the  same 
stock,  and  spoke  closely  allied  dialects  of  the  same  lan- 
guage, while  they  were  indistinguishable  in  their  Semitic 
features.  Many  obtained  their  freedom,  and,  both  in 
town  and  country,  grew  daily,  alike  in  feeling  and  in  the 
eyes  of  the  community,  recognized  members  of  the  general 
population.'  Not  a  few  Hebrews,  moreover,  ere  long, 
shewed  that  instinctive  national  genius  for  commerce 
and  public  affairs,  which  has  made  the  Jew,  in  all  lands, 
the  middleman  in  every  industry  ;  the  banker,  the  money- 
lender, the  great  merchant,  or  the  petty  tradesman  ;  but 
always  the  more  than  successful  rival  of  the  native-born 
population,  on  whose  resources  he  levied  a  heavy  toll,  by 
his  shrewdness,  his  tenacity,  his  capacity  for  work,  his 
Oriental  courtesy,  apt  to  degenerate  into  servility,  and,  it 
must  be  owned,  his  only  too  general  want  of  principle, 
if  it  in  any  degree  threatened  his  gains.  As,  to-day,  the 
Jew  is,  through  Europe,  a  controlling  power  on  the  ex- 
change, in  the  negotiation  of  loans,  great  and  small,  on  the 
press,  in  the  law,  in  commerce,  and  even  in  many  petty 
industries  ;  as  he  has  given  England  a  D'Israeli,  Austria 
a  Metternich,  many  capitals  a  Eothschild  ;  as  he  gave 
Egypt  a  Joseph,  and  Babylon  a  Daniel,  he  doubtless  came 
to  the  front,  long  before  the  Exile  ended,  in  many  ways, 
equally  varied  and  equally  weighty,  in  the  lands  on  the 
Euphrates.  The  race  had,  moreover,  from  the  first,  en- 
joyed the  advantage  of  being  collected  in  groups  from  the 
same  localities  in  the  fatherland.  The  exiles  from  Gribeon, 
Bethlehem,  Anathoth,  and  many  other  places,  found  them- 

»  Ps.  evi.  46. 


REDEMPTION-   DRAWIXG   N^IGH.  369 

selves  among  old  neiglibours  and  friends/  and  the  Baby- 
lonian authorities  had  even  been  considerate  enough,  to 
transfer  each  of  the  family  groups  and  connections  of  the 
chief  houses  of  Jerusalem,  as  a  whole,  to  the  same  district, 
so  that  we  find  the  descendants  of  David,  of  Joab,  and 
other  Judaean  patricians,  living  in  free  intercourse  and  close 
neighbourhood  in  Babylonia.'^  Even  the  poor  Nethinim, 
the  slaves  owned  by  the  Temple,  and  the  public  slaves 
known  as  '*  bond  servants  of  Solomon,"  had  been  set  down 
in  communities  of  their  own/  Still  more,  permission  to 
hold  land  and  vineyards,  and  to  follow  trade  or  gain, 
appears  to  have  been  granted  after  a  time,  and  hence,  at 
least  in  later  years,  many  of  the  exiles  possessed  not  only 
slaves,  but  horses,  mules,  camels,*  and  asses,  though  the 
mass  had  still,  necessarily,  to  support  themselves  by  hum- 
ble labour,^  and  not  a  few  remained  slaves  to  Babylonians, 
or  even  to  their  brotlier  Jews.  A  very  curious  glimpse  of 
the  state  of  things  thus  found,  in  those  days,  among  this 
class  of  Hebrews,  has  come  to  light  through  the  revela- 
tions of  the  tablets  recovered  from  Babylonia.  In  the 
great  library  of  Sippara,  or  Sepharvaim,  now  Abu  Hubba, 
on  a  canal  branching  eastward  from  the  Euphrates,  about 
thirty  miles  southeast  of  Bagdad,  thousands  of  tablets, 
recording  fiscal,  legal,  and  commercial  transactions  were 
found.  They  were  preserved  in  the  temple  of  the  Sun, 
then  brought  to  light,  shewing  that  documents  of  value 
were,  to  a  large  extent,  entrusted  to  the  keeping  of  the 
priests,  in  the  sacred  chambers  of  their  sanctuaries,  which, 
it  was  assumed,  no  one  would  dare  to  invade.     In  one  such 


1  See  the  list  in  Ezra  ii.  with  the  parallel  inNeh.  vii.  26, 

2  See  the  lists  in  Ezra  and  Nehemiah.  '  Ibid. 

«  Ibid.    Isa.  Ixvi.  20.    Ezra  ii.  64-67.  *  Jos.,  Ant.,  XVIII.  ix.  1. 

VOL.  VI.-24 


370  REDEMPTIOK    DRAWING   NIGH. 

room  over  thirty  thousand  tablets  were  discovered,  so  care- 
fully laid  away,  that,  having  been  removed  without  dis- 
turbing their  arrangement,  most  of  them,  when  unpacked 
in  England,  proved  to  be  in  exact  chronological  order, 
from  B.C.  600  to  B.C.  200  ;  many  of  them  having  thus  lain 
undisturbed,  and  without  injury  from  time,  for  nearly  2,500 
years. 

The  Babylonian  priests,  like  the  Jewish,  and,  indeed, 
like  our  own  old  Church  courts  till  the  Reformation,  were 
not  only  ecclesiastics,  but  lawyers  and  judges  ;  carrying 
on  many  branches  of  legal  business  in  their  courts.  Some 
reports  of  cases  decided  by  these  tribunals  have  been 
found  among  the  treasures  brought  to  England  from  the 
Sippara  library,  or  record  office,  and,  of  these,  a  number 
have  been  translated.  Among  others,  one  proves  to  be  a 
report  of  the  proceedings  in  a  case,  where  a  Jew  sought, 
about  the  year  B.C.  570,  in  the  middle  of  the  Exile,  to  prove 
himself  entitled  to  his  freedom — he  having  previously  been 
a  slave.  The  story  as  we  now  read  it,  is  as  follows  :  One 
Barachiel — the  same  name  as  the  father  of  Elihu,  in  Job  * 
— had  originally  been  the  slave  of  a  wealthy  man,  called 
Akni-miri,  who,  about  B.C.  570,  had  sold  him  to  a  widow, 
named  Gaga.  In  the  house  of  this  lady  he  remained,  as 
her  slave,  for  twenty-one  years,  with  the  power  of  buying 
his  freedom,  if  he  ever,  by  his  own  permitted  earnings, 
gained  the  sum  demanded  for  it. 

This  amount,  however,  he  never  was  able  to  get  together, 
and  consequently  remained  Gaga's  property.  As  such,  she 
gave  him  in  pledge  for  some  debt,  and  having  received 
him  again,  on  its  being  paid,  finally  made  him  over  to 
her  daughter,  on  the  young  lady's  marriage,  as  part  of  her 

>  Job  xxxii.  2-6. 


REDEMPTION"   DRAWING   NIGH.  371 

dowry.  The  daughter,  in  her  turn,  gave  him  to  her  hus- 
band and  son,  in  exchange  for  a  house  and  some  slaves,  so 
that  he  must  have  been  of  special  value  :  slaves  being, 
often,  physicians,  librarians,  scribes,  or  mechanics.  The 
mother.  Gaga,  and  the  daughter,  both  dying,  he  was  sold, 
presumably  by  the  husband  and  son,  who,  thus,  could  not 
have  had  him  fully  transferred  to  them  before,  but  had,  as 
it  were,  held  him  as  a  pledge,  a  living  mortgage,  for  the 
house  and  the  slaves  made  over  to  the  daughter.  This 
time,  he  was  sold  to  a  wealthy  publican — presumably  a  sub- 
farmer  of  the  taxes — but  he  would  not  stay  with  him,  and 
ran  off  twice.  When  caught,  after  the  second  escape,  he 
had  the  courage  to  begin  an  action,  claiming  to  be  a  free- 
born  citizen,  of  a  family  he  named.  To  prove  this,  he  pre- 
tended that  he  had  performed  the  marriage  rites,  at  the 
wedding  of  his  master^s  daughter,  with  a  certain  person 
named,  which  he  could  not  have  done  had  he  been  a  slave, 
or  even  a  freed-man,  since  all  priests — and  he  had,  he 
said,  acted  as  one — were  of  free  birth.  He  even  went  the 
length  of  maintaining  that  he  was  descended  from  one 
of  the  half -fabulous  heroes,  who  gave  their  names  to  the 
noble  families  of  Babylon,  and  that  he  was  one  of  the 
house  of  a  high  priest,  whom  he  named. 

The  royal  judges  before  whom  his  case  was  brought,  here- 
upon asked  him  to  prove  that  he  was  of  free  birth,  as  he 
claimed  to  be,  and,  in  the  end,  Barachiel,  with  all  his 
Hebrew  craft,  was  obliged  to  confess  that  his  statements 
had  been  false.  He  could  not  rebut  the  evidence  brought 
against  him,  and  though  it  is  probable  that  he  had  taken 
the  precaution  of  naming  parties  already  dead,  as  those 
whom  he  had  joined  in  marriage,  other  witnesses  appeared, 
Who  proved  that  he  was  a  slave  who  had  the  right,  on  cer- 


372  REDEMPTION^   DRAWING    KIGH. 

tain  conditions,  of  piircliasing  liis  freedom,  and  so,  poor 
fellow,  he  had  to  go  back  to  his  servitude.' 

The  general  condition  of  the  exiles,  however,  notwith- 
standing such  cases  as  this,  must  have  been,  on  the  whole,  at 
least  as  the  Exile  drew  to  a  close,  far  from  one  of  unmixed 
suffering  or  discomfort,  since  a  very  small  number  of  them 
were  willing  to  leave  the  Euphrates  for  Palestine,  when 
Cyrus  gave  permission  to  return  to  it.  Indeed,  so  few  and 
inconsiderable  were  the  emigrants  to  their  old  land,  that 
their  brethren  remaining  in  Babylonia  had  to  contribute 
yearly  to  their  maintenance,  for  generations,  while  the 
wealth,  the  purity  of  blood,  and  the  numbers  of  the  He- 
brew population  who  made  the  region  of  the  Captivity 
their  permanent  home,  were  so  striking  and  indisputable, 
that  even  the  Palestine  Jews  always  spoke  reverently  of 
them,  as  the  kernel  of  the  wheat,  of  which  they  themselves 
were  only  the  inferior  outside  flour.  Babylonia,  in  fact,  as 
has  been  said,  and  may  hereafter  be  shewn  more  fully,  con- 
tinued to  be  the  true  capital  and  headquarters  of  Judaism, 
far  more  than  Jerusalem,  and  remained  so  till  late  into  the 
middle  ages. 

Growing  contentment  with  their  new  home,  and  the 
abatement  of  enthusiasm  for  Judaea  which  time  brought 
with  it,  must,  therefore,  by  degrees,  have  made  life  more 
pleasant  for  the  exiles.  The  language  of  Babylonia,  more- 
over, was  so  closely  related  to  Hebrew,  and  its  use  was  so 
easy,  that  it  ultimately  supplanted  the  latter,  thus  intro- 
ducing once  more  among  the  descendants  of  their  great 
ancestor  Abraham,  his  long-disused  dialect,  and  leaving 
that  of  Palestine,  which  had  been  for  ages  adopted  in  its 
place,  to  become  obsolete.     Ezekiel  and  Daniel  shew  this 

»  Dr.  Oppert  in  Records  oftht  Past,  N.  S.,  vol.  ii.  155,  ff. 


REDEMPTION    DRAWING    NIGH.  373 

change  ;  part  of  their  writings  being  in  Aramaic  or  '^Chal- 
dee/'  Still  more,  the  ability  and  virtues,  and  even  the 
beauty  of  not  a  few,  from  the  first,  as  I  have  said,  won 
notice  for  them  in  the  highest  quarters,  as  in  the  instances 
of  Daniel  and  his  companions,  and,  at  a  later  period,  in 
those  of  Nehemiah  and  Queen  Esther. 

The  short  reign  of  Evil  Merodach,  B.C.  562-560,'  brought 
still  brighter  times  to  the  exiles.  Jehoiachin,  who  had  lain 
in  a  dungeon  for  thirty-seven  years,  was  at  last  set  free, 
and  seated  at  the  table  of  the  Great  King,  clothed  in  royal 
robes.  Shut  up  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  and  now  a  man  of 
fifty-five,  we  can  scarcely  doubt  that  his  restored  influence 
was  exerted  on  behalf  of  his  brethren,  who,  through  all  his 
sufferings,  had  loyally  clung  to  him  as  their  king.  But 
two  years  later,  the  weak  and  effeminate  son  of  Nebuchad- 
nezzar was  murdered  by  his  brother-in-law,  Neriglissar, 
who  held  the  throne  from  B.C.  560  to  B.C.  557,  when  he 
was  succeeded  by  his  son,  a  minor,  who  perished  within 
nine  months  by  a  conspiracy  of  the  nobles.  One  of  these, 
Nabonidus,  as  has  already  been  said,^  gained  the  vacant 
throne,  and  held  it  from  B.C.  556  to  the  capture  of  Baby- 
lon by  Cyrus  in  B.C.  538 — a  period  of  eighteen  years.  It 
was  Belshazzar,  the  eldest  son  of  this  king,  who  was  slain 
when  the  city  Avas  taken — his  father  having  raised  him  to 
a  share  of  the  throne  some  time  before.  An  inscription 
recently  translated  informs  us,  moreover,  that  he  had  a 
separate  establishment,  with  his  own  scribes,  etc.,  during 
the  reign  of  his  father  ;  a  major-domo  managing  it  for  him, 
with  authority  over  its  body  of  field  and  household  slaves, 
its  grounds,  its  internal  arrangements,  and  all  else.     The 

1  Schrader.    562-560,  Birch.    561-560,  Volck,  in  new  edition  of  Herzog.    See,  aleo» 
this  vol.  p.  2S6.  »  Or  Nabunahid.  '  P.  289. 


374  KEDEMPTION   DRAWING   l^IGH. 

prince  appears  to  have  been  zealous  in  the  service  of  the 
gods,  in  contrast  to  his  father,  who  neglected  them.  De- 
tails of  an  offering  presented  by  him  in  the  year  B.C.  550 — 
the  sixth  year  of  his  father's  reign — survive.  We  find  traces 
of  his  having  two  brothers,  one  of  whom,  unwilling  to  sink 
into  obscurity,  ventured  to  revolt,  in  the  reign  of  Darius 
Hystaspis,  in  the  vain  hope  of  regaining  the  throne  of  his 
ancestors.* 

The  whole  number  of  the  exiles  was  by  no  means  great. 
There  had  been  about  a  million  souls  in  Judah  and  Benja- 
min in  the  time  of  David,  not  including  the  Levites,  and 
the  increase  in  the  four  centuries  since  must  have  been 
large.  But  not  more  than  perhaps  100,000  were  carried 
off  into  captivity.  Many  had  fled  to  Egypt,  and  numbers 
of  the  peasantry  remained  in  the  land,  so  that  those  taken 
to  Babylon  were  at  best  only  a  feeble  remnant.'  Among 
them,  however,  were  the  noblest  of  the  race,  from  whom, 
as  from  a  root,  the  nation,  cut  down  so  low,  would  one  day 
spring  up  again.  In  them  Judah  had  her  last  centre  of 
organized  public  life.  The  flower  of  the  princes,  patri- 
cians, and  priests  of  Judah,  of  its  skilled  mechanics  and 
once  substantial  burgesses,  had  been  transplanted  to  the 
Euphrates  in  numbers  sufficient  to  secure  in  due  time  the 
regeneration  of  the  State. 

But  the  calamities  of  the  nation  wrought  little  moral  im- 
provement in  the  bulk  of  the  exiles.  Idolatry,  to  which 
they  had  long  been  accustomed  in  Palestine,  flourished 
among  them  in  Babylonia,  as  is  strikingly  shewn  in  the 

»  Babyl.Jiecord, ills. 

'  Jos.,  Ant.,  XI.  iii.  10,  has  the  strange  error  in  the  text  of  making  those  who  re- 
turned to  Palestine  4,628,000  persons  from  twelve  years  old,  upwards.  Cohen  (Leg 
Pharisiens,  vol.  i.  p.  3),  quotes  this  as  the  estimate  by  Josephus  of  the  Jewish  popu- 
lation in  Babylon,  but  it  is  clearly  a  mistake  of  some  copyist,  as  it  refers  to  tho»e 
who  returned,  and  the  right  number  is  given  elsewhere. 


redemptio:n"  drawing  nigh.  375 

closing  chapters  of  Isaiah.  The  chief  men  treated  their 
brethren  with  the  same  cruel  harshness  so  often  rebuked 
by  the  prophets  in  Judah  ;  oppressing  dependents,  crush- 
ing the  poor  by  extortion,  perverting  the  law  to  their  own 
benefit,  and,  finally,  neglecting  those  whom  their  wicked- 
ness had  reduced  to  misery.  It  seemed  as  if  all  hope  of  a 
national  restoration  had  perished  ;  as  if  nothing  remained 
of  a  people  once  so  haughty,  but  the  dry,  unburied  bones. 
But  the  very  depth  of  the  evils  endured  led  to  good.  Some, 
as  Ave  have  seen,  learned  in  their  wretchedness  to  seek  the 
God  of  their  fathers.  Such  listened  eagerly  to  the  prom- 
ises of  the  prophets  that  they  Avould  return  to  Palestine, 
and  pondered  the  sacred  writings.  The  priests  of  the  line 
of  Zadok,  always  untainted  with  idolatry,  had  brought  with 
them  from  Judah  the  Books  of  the  Law ;  not  a  few  faith- 
ful souls  cherished  the  utterances  of  the  prophets,  handed 
down  from  the  past  ;  the  Levites  jealously  preserved  such 
of  the  Psalms  as  had  as  yet  been  composed  ;  the  so-called 
'' wise'' pondered  over  the  collection  of  sacred  proverbs, 
and  books  of  religious  philosophy  like  Job  ;  and  the  chron- 
iclers busied  themselves  with  some  of  the  national  histori- 
cal records.  Joel,  Amos,  Hosea,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Eze- 
kiel,  and  other  prophets,  became,  in  their  written  oracles, 
the  "  wells  of  salvation  "  to  the  religiously  disposed.  The 
"  songs  of  Zion  "  rose  again  on  the  banks  of  the  Chebar, 
and  in  every  Jewish  colony  in  Babylonia.  A  more  thought- 
ful earnestness  spread  daily.  Men  read  in  the  inspired 
records  multiplied  proofs  of  the  truth  of  their  ancient 
faith.' 

Meanwhile,  the  course  of  events  strengthened  the  Jew- 
ish communities.     More  than  a  century  before,  the  Ten 

»  Isa.  xxxiv.  16. 


376  REDEMPTIOI^^    DIIAWING    NIGH. 

Tribes  had  been  carried  off  by  Assyria;  but  on  the  de- 
struction of  Nineveh  numbers  of  them  had  joined  them- 
selves to  the  exiles  from  Judah/  and  thus  increased  the 
confidence  of  the  godly  in  the  restoration  of  the  State, 
since  this  reunion  was  itself  a  fulfilment  of  prophecy. 
Deep  penitence  for  the  past,  and  determination  to  be 
true  to  Jehovah,  henceforth  increased.'^  The  four  ca- 
lamitous days  of  their  recent  history — that  of  the  begin- 
ning of  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  in  the 
tenth  month  ;  the  day  on  which  the  city  was  taken,  in  the 
fourth  month  ;  the  day  of  its  final  destruction  in  the  fifth 
month  ;  and  that  of  the  murder  of  Gedaliah,  in  the  tenth 
month — were  set  apart  as  solemn  fasts  and  times  of  lamen- 
tation.' A  religious  revival  extended  from  the  common 
people  to  some  of  the  higher  classes.*  A  habit  of  observ- 
ing fixed  hours  for  prayer  became  common.  The  time  of 
the  incense  offering,  morning  and  evening,  had  long  been 
so  sacred  to  devotion/  that  the  word  ''  incense  ''  became  at 
last  the  equivalent  of  prayer."  Those  "who  feared  Jeho- 
vah "  accustomed  themselves  to  meet  often  together  for  sup- 
plication and  religious  counsel  ; '  usually,  it  would  seem, 
as  in  later  ages,  by  the  sides  of  flowing  streams,  where 
water  could  easily  be  had  for  purifications.*  The  face, 
moreover,  was  always  turned  in  prayer  towards  the  site  of 
the  ruined  Temple,  as  the  spot  where  God  had  once  been 
nearest  to  man.®  Noon  was  added  to  morning  and  evening 
as  a  time  for  supplication.'"     Devotion,  from  these  years, 

1  1  Chron.  ix.  3.    Neh.  vii.  34  ;  xi.  4.    Jer.  1.  4,  20  ;  li.  5. 

s  Isa.  Ixvi.  2,  5.    Ezra  x.  3. 

3  Zech.  vii.  3  ;  viii.  19.    Isa.  Ixi.  3  ;  Ixvi.  10.    Ps.  Ixix.  11. 

*  Isa.  Ivi.  4.  s  Ps.  cxli.  2,  3,  5.  «  Rev.  viii.  3. 

f  Mai.  iii.  16.  «  3  Mace.  vii.  20.    Jos.,  Ant.,  XIV.  x.  23.    Acts  xvi.  13. 

•  Dan.  vi.   10.    We  see  the  practice  already  in  1  Kings  viii.  48. 
10  Dam.  vi.  11.    See  Ps.  Iv.  17. 


REDEMPTIOlSr   DRAWING    NIGH.  377 

gained  a  prominence  it  had  never  enjoyed  before.  The 
house  of  prayer  became  a  substitute  for  the  Temple,*  and 
not  a  few  penitential  Psalms  seem  to  have  been  composed 
for  its  services. 

While  numbers  of  Jews  from  the  Ten  Tribes  found  a 
rallying-point,  after  the  fall  of  Assyria,  among  the  exiles 
in  Babylonia,  the  national  sentiment  was  flattered,  and 
loyalty  to  the  ancient  faith  intensified,  by  the  spectacle  of 
many  heathen  proselytes  accepting  the  Hebrew  creed." 
The  perusal  of  copies  of  portions  of  the  sacred  writings  can 
hardly  have  helped  this,  for  the  language  in  which  the 
Jewish  Scriptures  were  written  was  not  familiar  to  many 
Babylonians.  It  must  have  been  the  result,  in  most  cases, 
of  the  earnest  efforts  of  the  godly  among  the  exiles,  anxious 
to  atone  for  their  past  indifference,  by  spreading  the  glory 
of  Jehovah.  The  fact  tliat  not  a  few  Jews,  like  Daniel, 
were  in  prominent  positions,  and  the  constant  tendency  to 
a  closer  intimacy  in  the  affairs  of  ordinary  life,  doubtless 
aided  this  missionary  enthusiasm.  Moreover,  the  genera- 
tion born  in  Babylonia  must  have  felt  much  more  kindly 
towards  it  and  its  people  than  their  fathers  had  done.  Some 
of  them,  indeed,  even  assumed  Chaldaean  names,  as  in  the 
case  of  Zerubbabel,  who  was  also  known  as  Sheshbazzar,* 
and  that  of  Mordecai,  which  is  a  Babylonian,  or  possibly 
a  Persian  word.  In  such  circumstances,  the  immeasurable 
superiority  of  the  Jewish  faith  over  idolatry  could  readily 
be  urged  on  the  more  thoughtful  of  the  heathen  around. 
The  poor  especially,  among  these,  if  we  may  judge  from 
the  experience  of  early  Christianity,  supplied  adherents  to 
the  true  faith  ;  the  humbler  Jews  mixing  freely  with  them, 

»  Isa.  Ivl.  7.  «  Isa.  Ivi.  6. 

8  Ezra  i.  8,11;  V.  16.     1  Esd.  ii.  12,  15. 


378  REDEMPTION^   DRAWING   NIGH. 

and  winning  their  favourable  regard.  Once  gained,  these 
proselytes  kept  the  Sabbath  and  honoured  the  Law,  per- 
haps even  to  the  length  of  submitting  to  circumcision  ;  ^ 
and  their  adhesion  reacted  on  the  Jews  themselves,  kindling 
in  them  a  still  greater  pride  in  their  creed,  and  loyalty  to  it. 

But  if  some  Jews  learned  in  exile  to  value  their  religion 
aright,  too  many  became  tainted  by  the  heathen  influences 
around  them.  Babylon  was  the  London  of  its  day,  with  a 
similar  gigantic  commerce  and  huge  confluence  of  visitors 
from  all  lands,  for  business,  pleasure,  or  religion.  Immo- 
rality brought  no  shame.  The  very  temples  derived  a 
large  revenue  from  prostitution  in  their  grounds.  Harlots 
were,  in  fact,  part  of  their  recognized  establishment,  and 
it  was  even  a  law  that  every  woman  should  offer  herself  at 
least  once  in  this  way,  in  the  service  of  the  gods.  Natu- 
rally,  the  mass  of  the  exiles  caught  the  infection  of  so 
impure  a  worship.  Babylonian  idols  were  honoured  in 
Jewish  households,  many  of  which  furtlier  disregarded  the 
Law  by  feasts  on  unclean  creatures  offered  to  these  gods/ 
Jerusalem  was  forgotten,  and  the  idea  of  a  return  to  Pales- 
tine treated  with  scorn.'  Large  numbers  became  virtually 
Babylonians,  and  laughed  at  the  fanaticism  of  their  breth- 
ren who  longed  for  Palestine.  Vice  and  wickedness  of  all 
kinds  flourished.*  It  was  clear  that  the  Return,  when  it 
came,  would  drain  off  most  of  the  clear  wine  of  the  nation 
that  remained,  and  leave  behind  it  a  vast  body  of  lees.' 

The  prophet  Hosea  had  foretold  that  Israel  would  need 
to  be  led  once  more  into  the  wilderness,  to  quicken  her 

»  Isa.  Ivi.  6.  2  Isa.  Ixv.  3-8  ;  Ixvi.  17. 

3  Isa.  Ixiv.  11.  «  Isa.  lix.  1-15. 

*  In  the  generations  after  the  Return,  there  was  a  great  revival  among  those  Jews 
who  remained  in  Babylonia.  They  became  as  zealous  for  the  Law  and  the  Temple  as 
their  brethren  in  Judah. 


BEDEMPTION"    DRAWING   N^IGH.  379 

again  to  fidelity  to  Jehovah,  and  exile  beyond  the  East- 
ern desert  had  fulfilled  the  prediction.  The  wails  of  the 
Psalms  and  prophets  of  the  time  only  expressed  the  inex- 
tinguishable sorrow  of  the  better  class  of  the  banished. 
The  sword,  the  dungeon,  the  lash  ;  hunger,  nakedness, 
scorn,  as  already  noted,  had  marked  the  first  days,  at 
least,  of  the  Exile.  Of  the  multitude  that  left  Judah, 
numbers  had  perished  on  the  way.'  To  the  survivors — 
so  far  as  they  were  zealous  for  Jewish  peculiarities — life 
among  the  unclean  must  have  been  a  perpetual  agony, 
from  the  deadly  peril  at  every  moment  of  breaking  the 
Law  by  heathen  defilements.  Even  pulse  was  preferable 
to  the  dainties  of  the  royal  table  under  such  circum- 
stances.'' The  hundred-and-second  Psalm,  which  dates 
from  the  closing  years  of  the  Exile,  brings  the  times 
vividly  before  us.  The  weary  servants  of  God,  longing 
for  the  promised  Return,  poured  forth,  in  its  strains,  the 
grief  weighing  on  their  hearts. 

"  CII.  1.  Hear  my  prayer,^  0  Jehovah:  let  my  cry  come  before 
Thee.  2.  Hide  not  Thy  face  from  me  in  the  day  when  I  am  in  trouble ; 
incline  Thine  ear  unto  me;  in  the  day  when  I  call,  hear  me  speedily. 
3.  For  my  days  vanish  away  like  smoke :  my  bones  are  burned  (with 
fever),  like  a  glowing  hearth.  4.  My  heart  is  withered  and  dried  up 
like  grass,  till  I  have  forgotten  to  eat  my  bread.  5.  Through  my  loud 
groaning  my  bones  cleave  to  my  skin.*  6.  I  am  like  a  pelican  of  the 
wilderness,*  I  am  become  like  an  owl  amidst  ruins,  (so  forlorn  am  I  and 
desolate).  7.  I  pass  the  night  sleepless,  and,  (while  others  sleep),  I  am 
like  a  lonely  wakeful  bird  on  the  house-top.  8.  My  enemies  speak  con- 
temptuously of  me  all  the  day  long  ;  they  that  rage  against  me  make 
their  oaths  by  me.*    9.  For  I  have  eaten  ashes  like  bread,'^  and  mingled 

»  Ezek.  xxxiii.  27.  '  Ezek  iv.  12-15.     Dan.  i.  5-10.  3  pg^  cii.  1-9. 

*  Literally,  "  flesh."    He  was  only  skin  and  bones.  »  Both  unclean  birds, 

'  i.e.,  "God  make  thee  like  him— forsaken  and  wretched."  Isa.  Ixv.  15.  Jer. 
xxix.  22. 

^  As  a  mourner  he  sat  in  ashes  and  strewed  them  on  his  head  (Job  ii.  8  ;  Ezek. 
xxvii.  30),  and  thus  his  bread  was  mixed  with  them. 


380  REDEMPTION"   DRAWlNa   KIGH. 

my  drink  Avith  weeping,  10.  because  of  Thy  indignation  and  Thy  wrath ;' 
for  Thou  hast  lifted  me  up- (from  my  native  land),  and  cast  me  forth. 
11.  My  days  are  like  a  long  stretched  out  shadow  (soon  to  be  all  dark- 
ness), and  I  am  dried  up  like  (withered)  grass. 

"  12.  But  thou,  0  Jehovah,  sittesL  throned  for  ever,  and  Thy  glory 
is  from  generation  to  generation.  13.  Thou  shalt  arise  to  have  pity  on 
Zion,  for  the  time  to  favour  her,  yea,  the  set  time,  is  come.  14.  For 
Thy  servants  love  even  her  (ruined)  stones,  and  her  very  dust.  15. 
For  the  heathen  shall  (one  day)  fear  the  name  of  Jehovah,  and  all  the 
kings  of  the  earth  (be  awed  at)  Thy  glory,  (0  God),  16.  when  (it  is  said) 
'Jehovah  hath  rebuilt  Zion,  He  has  appeared  in  His  glory  ;  17.  He 
has  regarded  the  prayer  of  the  wretched  and  not  despiced  their  suppli- 
cation.' 18.  This  will  be  written  for  the  generation  to  come,  and 
people  yet  to  be  created  will  i)raise  Jehovah,  19.  because  He  will  look 
down  from  His  holy  height  ;  Jehovah  will  look  down  from  heaven,  on 
the  earth;  20.  to  hear  the  groans  of  the  prisoner,  to  set  loose  those 
doomed  to  death;  21.  that  men  may  extol  the  name  of  Jehovah  in 
Zion,  and  praise  Him  in  Jerusalem,  22.  when  the  nations  and  king- 
doms gather  together,  to  serve  Jehovah. 

"23.  He  has  bowed  down  the  strength  of  my  life;  He  has  shortened 
my  days.  24.  My  God,  said  I,  take  me  not  away  in  the  midst  of  my 
days — Thou,  whose  years  are  from  generation  to  generation !  25.  Of 
old  Thou  hast  laid  the  foundation  of  the  earth,  and  the  heavens  are 
the  work  of  Thy  hands.  2().  They  shall  perish,  but  Thou  shalt  endure; 
they  all  grow  old  like  a  garment ;  Thou  changest  them  like  a  vesture 
and  they  change,  27.  but  Thou  remainest  the  same,  and  Thy  years 
have  no  end.  28.  The  children  of  Thy  servants  will  have  rest,  and 
their  descendants  will  continue  before  Thee."  ^ 

The  intense  devotion  to  Jerusalem  and  Jehovah  breathed 
in  this  Psalm,  marks  the  cliange  wrought  in  the  better 
class  of  the  exiles  by  the  Captivity.  It  broke  the  charm 
idolatry  had  hitherto  exercised.  Henceforward,  through 
all  the  future,  they  and  their  descendants  were  fierce 
monotheists.     Their   national    shame   and   suffering   were 

'  Ps.  cii.  10-28. 

2  The  date  proposid  by  some  for  this  Psalm— Nehemiah's  time,  before  the  walls 
were  rebuilt -seems  to  me  less  satisfactory  than  that  of  the  Exile.  The  groans  of  the 
prisoner,  and  the  sorrows  of  those  doomed  to  death  (verse  20),  suit  Babylon  more 
naturally  thau  the  colony  on  Mount  Zion. 


REDEMPTION    DRAWIN^G    NIGH.  381 

recognized  as  the  punishment  of  the  heathen  practices  of 
their  fathers,  and  changed  them  for  ever  into  worshippers 
of  Jehovah  alone,  as  the  fires  of  Sniithfiekl  made  English- 
men Protestants.'  The  loathing  and  Ijitterness  with  which 
the  prophets  denounce  image-worship  became  the  feeling 
of  the  whole  Jewish  race.  In  tlie  apocryphal  Letter  of 
Jeremiah,  though  it  is  of  later  date,''  the  idolatry  of  Baby- 
lon is  painted,  for  the  execration  of  all,  in  the  most  vivid 
detail.  The  gods  of  silver,  gold,  and  wood,  are  described 
as  seen  in  the  great  religious  processions,  borne  on  men's 
slioulders,  their  whole  surface  plated  Avith  gold  and  silver, 
golden  crowns  on  their  heads,  and  gorgeous  robes  around 
them. 

"  Yet,"  says  the  writer,  **  they  cannot  save  themselves  from  rust  and 
moths,  though  clad  in  purple;  and  men  have  to  wipe  the  dust  off  their 
faces.  They  stand  in  their  temples  with  sword  and  battle-axe  in  their 
hands,  but  they  cannot  defend  themselves  from  violence  or  thieves. 
The  doors  need  locks  and  bars  to  keep  such  gods  safe;  and  though 
lamps  are  lit  for  them,  they  cannot  see.  Their  faces  are  blackened 
with  the  smoke  (of  incense  and  lamps),  and  bats  and  swallows  (that  fly 
through  the  open  temple),  and  cats  (that  creep  through),  sit  on  their 
bodies  and  heads." 

The  hideous  impurity  associated  with  the  w^orship ;  the 
Levitical  uncleanness  of  the  worshippers;  the  unclean  food 
set  before  the  idols;  the  ^^  roaring  and  shouting  "  of  the 
priests,  in  their  ministrations  ;  their  rent  clothes  and 
shaven  heads  and  beards,  are  all  detailed  for  contemptuous 
ridicule,  and  even  the  dishonesty  of  the  priests  is  noticed.' 

Such  was  the  attitude  towards  idolatry  brought  about 
finally  and  for  ever  by  the  Exile.  But  it  had  also  the 
grand  result  of  leading  men  to  set  increasing  value  on  tlie 

'  Stanley,  vol.  iii.  p.  31.  2  Schiirer  saya  only,  that  it  is  of  Greek  origin. 

'  Barucb,  chap,  vi.,  passim.  See  also  "  Bel  and  the  Dragon,"  and  the  Song  of  the 
Thre»  Children. 


382  EEDEMPTION^    DRAWING    IsTIGH. 

spiritual  services  of  religion,  as  contrasted  with  the  merely 
ritual.  Though  without  prince,  prophet,  leader,  burnt 
ofPering,  sacrifice,  oblation,  incense,  or  place  of  sacrifice, 
men  now  hoped  to  be  accepted  when  they  knelt  with  a 
contrite  heart  and  a  humble  spirit  before  the  Unseen  God.' 
How  far  the  later  theology  and  morality  of  Judaism 
were  due  to  the  studies  and  influences  of  the  Exile  is  not 
easy  to  say,  since  the  schools  of  Alexandria,  after  a  time, 
largely  coloured  Hebrew  thought.  But  it  is  certain  that 
the  Jew  after  the  Captivity  was  a  different  man  from  his 
forefathers.  The  teaching  of  ''Daniel^'  respecting  angels, 
is  an  advance  on  what  is  previously  revealed.  We  read  for 
the  first  time  of  "  Michael,  the  Prince  of  Israel,"'  of  the 
''  Prince  of  Persia,''  and  of  the  ''  Prince  of  Greece." '  The 
earliest  distinct  announcement  of  tlie  resurrection  of  the 
dead  appears  also  in  that  book  ;  ^  and  in  the  mysterious  Son 
of  Man,  who  came  to  the  Ancient  of  Days,"  there  seems  to 
be  a  disclosure  of  the  Divine  personality  of  the  expected 
Messiah — the  "  Word  of  God  "  of  later  Judaism,  and  the 
^'  Word  made  flesh  "  of  St.  John.  It  must  be  remembered, 
however,  that  the  book  of  Daniel,  in  its  present  form,  is 
recognized  by  all  scholars  to  be  the  result  of  revision  and 
expansion,  we  know  not  how  extensive,  at  a  very  late  period. 
The  stress  laid  on  the  burial  of  the  dead  and  on  almsgiv- 
ing in  Tobit,'  and  in  the  Apocryphal  literature  generally, . 
appears,  also,  to  be  a  gleam  of  light  from  the  days  when 
heaven  brightened  as  the  earth  grew  dark  round  the  exiles. 
Nor  is  it  possible  to  overlook  the  change  from  traditional 
exclusiveness,  shewn  by  the  enthusiasm  to  bring  aliens,  by 
proselytism,  into  the  communion  of  Israel.     The  closing 

»  Song  of  the  Three  Children,  ver.  14,  15.  «  Dan.  x.  13,  21;  xii.  1. 

8  Dan.  xii.  2.  ■•  Dan.  vii.  13.  ^  Tobit  iv.  3-20,  etc. 


REDEMPTION    DRAWING    NIGH.  383 

chapters  of  Isaiah  embody  the  wider  sympathies  of  times 
when  contact  with  the  great  world  extended  the  views  and 
enlarged  the  sympathies  of  the  nation.  The  isles  of  the 
west,  including  the  Mediterranean  coasts,  as  far  as  Tarshish 
on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  Spain,  and  the  countless  races,  as 
far  east  as  China,  '^  the  land  of  the  Sinim,^' '  are  all  eagerly 
expected  to  join  with  the  Jew  in  a  common  worship  on  the 
Temple  mountain. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten,  moreover,  that  the  Exile  was 
the  period  in  which  the  guardianship,  transcription,  and 
study  of  the  sacred  books  first  became  the  special  care 
of  a  distinct  class,  afterwards  famous  as  the  great  order  of 
the  Scribes.  Shut  out  from  former  privileges,  and  forced 
to  hope  in  the  future  rather  than  look  to  the  present,  the 
earnest  Jew  concentrated  on  his  sacred  writings,  the  devo- 
tion hitherto  felt  for  the  Temple  and  its  services.  The 
writings  of  the  prophets  were  collected,  and  the  story  of 
the  past  in  part,  at  least,  recorded  by  the  aid  of  ancient 
documents.  The  Books  of  Kings,  by  the  internal  evidence 
of  their  last  statements,  date  from  this  age  of  national  de- 
pression, and  we  owe  to  it,  probably,  besides,  the  collection 
of  the  prophecies  of  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  and  the  preser- 
vation of  other  portions  of  the  Bible.  "Withdrawn  for  a 
time  into  scenes  of  humiliation  and  trouble,  and  thus  puri- 
fied, the  Jews  brought  back  again  to  their  own  land  the 

>  By  "the  land  of  Sinim  "  we  are  to  understand  "  the  land  of  the  Sinim;"  the 
word  being  in  the  plural.  From  the  connection  in  Isa.  xlix.  12,  where  it  is  used,  some 
country  either  in  the  far  south  or  in  the  east  must  be  intended,  but  the  east  appears  to 
suit  best,  as  a  contrast  to  the  west,  mentioned  before  in  the  verse.  The  opinion  that 
China  and  the  Chinese  are  meant  seems  most  prol)able.  There  was  a  Chinese  prov- 
ince called  Tsin,  on  the  Hoangho,  when  this  portion  of  Isaiah  was  written,  but  this 
name,  it  seems,  was  not  in  use  west  of  China  in  that  age.  But  the  Chinese  are  known 
to  have  had  trade  relations  with  the  West,  at  least  as  early  as  the  tenth  century  before 
Christ,  80  that  the  reference  seems  certainly  to  be  to  them.  See  art.  "Sinim  "  in 
Riehm. 


384  REDEMPTION    URAAVING    NIGH. 

rich  treasure  of  their  sacred  writings,  of  which  the  disci- 
pline they  had  borne  qualified  them  to  be  the  watchful 
guardians. 

The  last  twenty  years  before  the  release  of  the  Hebrews 
from  Babylon  must  have  been  a  time  of  feverish  excitement 
through  all  Western  Asia,  and  especially  among  the  exiles. 
When  the  mighty  Nebuchadnezzar  was  just  closing  his 
career,  a  movement,  destined  to  change  the  history  of  the 
world,  had  begun  in  the  mountains  beyond  the  Southern 
Tigris.  The  leader  under  whom  this  great  political  revolu- 
tion Avas  accomplished,  was  the  Cyrus  of  Isaiah,  originally 
king  of  Elam,  but,  ultimately,  after  he  conquered  Media, 
king  of  Persia  also.  He  could  trace  his  descent  back  to  a 
member  of  tlie  royal  Persian  clan,  '^  Teispes,"  which  seems 
to  have  ruled  over  Elam  after  the  fall  of  Assyria ;  ^  his  Per- 
sian dominions  being  handed  over  to  his  son,  the  great- 
grandfather of  Darius  Hystaspes.  Cyrus  himself  gives  his 
titles,  even  in  his  later  years,  as  king  of  Babylon,  Sumir, 
or  Shinar,  Accad,  and  Ehim,  only  once  mentioning  Persia.'' 
The  Persian  empire  was  founded  by  Darius  Hystaspis, 
though  the  title  of  king  of  Persia  is  used  by  Ezra^  of 
Cyrus,  as  that  which  he  himself  adopted  in  his  later  years. 

Cyrus  was  the  son  of  Cambyses,  king  of  Elam,  and,  as  is 
said,  of  Mandane,  daughter  of  Astyages,  ki]ig  of  the  Medes, 
who  was  himself  the  son  of  King  Cyaxares,  whose  daugh- 
ter Nebuchadnezzar  had  married  after  the  fall  of  Assyria.* 
Elam  was  at  this  time  apparently  a  vassal  of  Media,  paying 
it  tribute  ;  but  Cyrus  overthrew  Astyages  and  made  him- 

J  This  appears  to  have  been  the  conquest  of  Elam  alhuled  to  in  Jer.  xlir.  34-39. 

»  Cylinder  of  Cyrus.  Isaiah  mentions  only  Elam  and  Media,  not  Persia,  as  invad- 
ing Babylonia,  chap.  xxi.  1-10.  ^  Ezra  i.  2. 

<  See  vol.  V.  p.  248.  Prof.  Sayce  questions  the  relation  of  Cyrus  to  Astyages. 
Smith's  Babylonia,  p.  172.  But  it  is  accepted  by  Dr.  P.  Justi,  Gesch.  des  alt.  Persiens. 
Pinches  thinks  the  war  against  Media  began  later,  about  u.c.  558. 


REDEMPTIOK    DRAWING    NIGH.  385 

self  king  of  Media,  in  B.C.  558.  Fortunate  in  securing  an 
alliance  with  the  king  of  Armenia,  another  vassal  of  Media, 
he  was  still  more  so  in  gaining  over  Harpagus,  the  general 
of  the  Median  army  sent  against  him.  Following  the 
example  of  their  commander,  the  bulk  of  the  troops  joined 
the  Elamites,  Avho  soon  after  defeated  Astyages  and  took 
him  prisoner.'  The  humiliated  king  ere  long  died,  and 
Cyrus,  having  put  the  heir  of  Media  to  death,  took  Amytis, 
daughter  of  Astyages,  wife  of  the  murdered  man,'  into  his 
harem ;  thus,  virtually,  assuming  the  crown. 

Having  entered  on  his  career  of  conquest,  the  great 
Elamite  carried  his  arms  triumphantly  f  I'om  land  to  land, 
till  the  whole  East,  as  far  as  the  Himalaya,  submitted  to 
his  rule.  Then,  having  no  more  worlds  to  conquer  in 
Further  Asia,  he  turned  his  face  towards  its  western  lands. 

The  age  in  which  he  appeared  was  a  memorable  one 
in  history.  Among  his  contemporaries  was  Amasis,  the 
successful  soldier,  who,  after  deposing  Pharaoh  Hophra,^ 
took  possession  of  his  throne,  and  cultivated  still  closer 
relations  with  Greek  mercenaries  than  had  cost  his  pred- 
ecessor both  crown  and  life.  The  year  B.C.  560  was 
marked  by  the  accession  of  Cyrus  to  his  father's  throne, 
that  of  Pisistratus  to  supreme  power  in  Athens,  and  that  of 
Croesus,  son  of  Gyges,  the  ally  of  Pharaoh  Hophra,  to  the 
throne  of  Lydia.  Twelve  years  before,  Tarquin  the  Proud 
had  begun  his  reign  at  Rome.  The  West  was  entering  on 
its  great  career  as  that  of  the  East  was  closing.  Hitherto, 
nations  of  Semitic  blood  had  been  foremost ;  henceforward, 
those  of  the  Aryan  stock  were  to  take  their  place.  Nor  is 
it  without  significance  that  the  Persians,  who  were,  here- 

*  Inacriptiou  of  Nabonidiis.  Tran.t.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  vol  vii.  p.  141. 
5  Thus  brotherb  and  sisters  married  in  Elam,  as  in  Persia  and  Egypt. 
»  See  p.  199. 

VOL.  VI.-»5 


386  REDEMPTtON    DRAWING   KIGH. 

after,  destined  to  close  the  long  era  in  which  the  centre  of 
political  power  had  been  on  the  Euphrates,  were  themselves 
Aryans,  and  thus  kindred  in  race  with  the  Greek  and  the 
Roman.  But  they  were  to  hold  the  sceptre  of  the  world 
only  for  a  few  years,  and  then  yield  it  for  ever  to  the  rising 
nations  of  Europe.  Ancient  history  was  closing  and 
modern  was  near  its  dawn. 

Croesus,  the  son  of  Gyges,  who  had  been  the  ally  of  the 
Pharaoh  against  Babylon,  continued  his  father^s  war  on  the 
Greek  cities  of  Asia  Minor,  and  greatly  extended  his  power. 
But  the  fame  of  his  immense  wealth  was  enough,  apart 
from  his  relations  to  ^gypt,  the  hereditary  enemy  of  the 
monarchs  of  Western  Asia,  to  draw  on  him  the  attack  of 
Cyrus,  the  new  conqueror.  Advancing  from  Armenia,  the 
Elamite  marched  through  subdued  nations,  to  Asia  Minor, 
and  there  Croesus  speedily  fell  before  him.  The  standard 
of  the  conqueror,  emblazoned  with  the  figure  of  a  flying 
eagle — the  '^  ravening  bird  "  *  of  the  prophet,  was  thus 
supreme  from  the  farthest  East  to  the  waters  of  the 
u^gean. 

Twenty  years  ^  passed  in  this  vast  succession  of  triumphs, 
but  Babylon  still  rose  above  the  wide  inundation  of  victory. 
That  it  should,  was  intolerable  to  a  boundless  ambition. 
It,  and  not  Ecbatana,  the  chief  city  of  Media  ;  or  Sardis, 
the  metropolis  of  Lydia  ;  or  Susa,  the  mountain  stronghold 
of  Susiana,  was  the  political  capital  of  Asia.  That  vast 
quadrangle  of  huge  walls,  with  broad  walks  along  their 
tops,  which  were  surmounted  by  lofty  towers,  and  guarded 
below,   by   a   hundred   gates  of    bronze,    was   a   province 

1  Isa.  xli.  2  ;  xlvi.  11.    Xen.,  Cyrop.,  vii.  1. 

2  If  Mr.  Pinches  be  correct,  the  time  spent  in  subduing  Media  and  the  other 
countries  was  only  about  twelve  years.  Ue  thinks  the  final  subjugation  of  Media  was 
in  B.C.  550.     Trans.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  vol.  vii.  p.  146. 


REDEMPTION    DRAWING    NIGH. 


rather  than  a 
metropolis.  It 
enclosed  with- 
in its  b  u  1  - 
warks  an  ag- 
gregate  of 
great  cities 
and  f  a  r  - 
stretching 
suburbs,  o  f 
wide  parks, 
and  gardens, 
and  waving 
fields.  The 
great  com- 
mercial high- 
ways of  Asia 
ran  through 
it,  and  human 
industry  had 
turned  the 
desert  round  it 
into  the  most 
fruitful  plain 
in  the  world. 
In  its  learned 
institutions 
was  to  be 
found  th  e 
highest  cul- 
ture of  the 
age  ;     in    i  t  s 


388  EEDEMPTiON^  dkawi:n^g  kigh. 

mansions  and  palaces,  the  accumulated  wealth  of  plundered 
nations,  and  the  refinements  of  the  most  consummate  lux- 
ury. It  was,  moreover,  the  religious  centre  of  Western 
Asia,  and  the  citadel  of  the  great  gods,  before  whom  all 
nations  had  trembled.  While  they  remained  unconquered, 
they  seemed  invincible.  Subject  nations  might  invoke 
them  to  aid  revolt  from  the  new  Power. 

Ambition  and  interest  thus  combined  to  make  an  assault 
on  the  great  city  of  the  Euphrates  only  a  question  of  time. 
Within  twenty  years  after  the  death  of  Nebuchadnezzar, 
Babylon,  hemmed  in  on  all  sides  by  the  conquests  of  Cyrus, 
was  the  only  Power  that  still  claimed  independence.  Its 
king,  Nabonidus,  the  third  in  succession  from  the  conqueror 
of  Jerusalem,  had  long  foreseen  his  danger.  It  almost 
seems,  indeed,  from  an  inscription  of  the  period,  that  at 
first  he  aided  Cyrus  against  the  Medes,'  but  in  the  last  ten 
years  of  his  reign  he  appears  to  have  relapsed  into  careless 
inactivity,  living  ignobly  in  his  palace  in  Tema,  not  far 
from  Babylon,'^  while  his  army  under  Belshazzar,  his  eldest 
son,  was  finding  a  Capua  in  the  luxurious  idleness  of  Accad, 
or  Northern  Babylonia.  The  seclusion  of  the  king,  more- 
over, excited  the  discontent  of  the  priests  ;  for  the  images 
of  the  gods  Nebo  ^  and  Bel  were  absent  with  him,  so  that 

*  Trans.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch..,  vol.  vii.  p.  145.  '  Sayce  calls  it  a  suburb  of  Babylon. 

8  In  the  middle  of  Babylon  rose  E-Zida,  the  temple  of  Nebo  and  o.  Nana  Tasmit, 
with  its  holy  of  holies— "the  supreme  house  of  life,"— and  its  lofty  tower,  known 
as  "the  home  of  the  seven  spheres  of  heaven  and  earth."  According  to  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, it  had  been  founded,  though  never  finished,  by  nn  ancient  king,  and  had 
lain  in  ruins  till  rebuilt  by  himself.  The  word  Nebo  means  "  the  proclaimer,"  "  the 
prophet,"  and  thus  indicates  the  character  of  the  god  to  whom  it  was  applied.  He 
was  the  proclaimer  of  the  mind  and  wishes  of  Merodach,  whether  by  speech  or  writ- 
ing. We  have,  indeed,  only  to  glance  over  his  titles  to  see  how  thoroughly  the  con- 
ception of  the  prophet  was  associated  in  him,  with  that  of  the  "  writer,"  for  he  is  not 
only  "the  wise,"  "  the  intelligent,"  "the  creator  of  peace,"  "the  author  of  the 
oracle,"  but  also  "  the  creator  of  the  written  tablet,"  "  the  maker  of  writing,"  and 
"the  opener  and  enlareer  of  the  ear."    There  seems,  indeed,  to  have  been  a  time 


REDEMPTION    DRAWINCx    NIGH.  389 

they  could  not  be  paraded  in  religious  processions,  to  re- 
ceive public  homage.  Neglecting  to  pay  them  this  honour, 
Nabonidus  contented  himself  with  holding  festivals  and 
offering  sacrifices  for  the  preservation  of  the  capital. 

A  contemporary  inscription,  lately  discovered,  gives  a 
glimpse  of  Babylonian  history  in  these  years.  Haran,  it 
tells  us,  had  been  taken  and  destroyed  by  the  Manda,  or 
*'  barbarians, '^  of  Ecbatana,  that  is,  by  the  Medes,  and  its 
temple  of  the  ^'  Moon ''  had  been  destroyed. 

"At  the  beginning  of  my  long  reign," '  says  Nabonidiis,  *'  Merodach, 
the  great  lord,  and  Sin,  the  moon-god,  the  illuminator  of  heaven  and 
earth,  the  strong  one  of  the  Universe,  revealed  to  me  a  dream.  Mero- 
dach  spoke  to  me  thus,  '  0  Nabonidus,  king  of  Babylon,  go  up  with 
the  horse  of  thy  chariot;  make  bricks  for  the  Temple  of  Rejoicing, 
and  let  the  seat  of  Sin,  the  great  lord,  enter  within  it.'  Reverently  I 
spoke  to  Merodach,  the  lord  of  the  gods:  'I  will  build  this  house,  of 
which  thou  hast  spoken.  The  barbarians  (the  Medes)  wentuboutit, 
and  their  forces  were  terrible.'  Merodach  answered  me.  '  The  bar- 
barians of  whom  thou  hast  spoken  shall  not  exist,  neither  they  nor 
their  lands,  nor  the  kings,  their  allies.'  In  the  third  year  (b.c.  553), 
when  they  (the  ))arbarian  Medes)  caused  Cyrus,  the  king  of  Elam,  his 
(Merodach's)  young  servant,  to  march  amongst  his  army;  they  pro- 
voked him  (Cyrus)  to  battle ;  the  wide-spread  barbarians  he  overthrew ; 
he  captured  Astyages,  king  of  the  barbarians,  and  seized  his  treasures ; 
to  his  own  land  he  took  them." 

After  this,  Nabonidus  was  able  to  fulfil  the  promise  he 
had  made.  Summoning  his  vast  army,  from  Gaza  on  the 
west,  and  the  Persian  Gulf  on  the  south,  he  began  the 
restoration  of  the  temple  at  Haran,  which  had  been  built 
three  hundred  years  before  by  Shalmaneser  II.,  and  after- 
wards repaired  by  Assur-bani-pal. 

when  he  was  something  more  than  the  son  of  Merodach  and  the  patron  of  the  literary 
class,  for  at  Borisippa  he  was  regarded  as  the  supreme  god  and  the  creator  of  the 
world.    Sayce,  llibberl  Lectures. 
'  B.C.  55C. 


390  REDEMPTION   DRAWING    NIGH. 

But  the  storm  of  war,  which  had  desolated  so  many 
other  lands,  was  now  about  to  sweep  over  Babylon  itself. 
A  cylinder,  inscribed  by  order  of  Cyrus,  and  discovered 
by  Mr.  Rass^m,  enables  us  to  trace  the  progress  of  the 
catastrophe. 

'^In  the  ninth  year  of  Nabonidus  (B.C.  547),"  it  tells 
us,*  "  Cyrus,  king  of  Persia,  in  the  month  Nisan  (April), 
collected  his  soldiers  and  crossed  the  Tigris  below  Arbela, 
and  the  following  month  marched  against  the  land  of 
.  .  .  .  Its  king  took  his  silver  and  himself,  and  made 
his  own  children  mount  (the  funeral  pyre),  and  then  both 
king  and  children  were  burnt  in  the  midst  of  it." 

Nabonidus,  unmoved  by  the  fate  of  this  neighbouring 
land,  still  lived  as  secluded  and  inactive  as  ever.  The 
year  B.C.  545  was  spent,  like  others,  at  Tema  ;  Belshaz- 
zar,  the  heir  apparent,  being  quartered  with  the  army  in 
Accad.  ^' Until  Nisan  (our  April)  the  king  did  not  go  to 
Babylon,  neither  did  Nebo  nor  Bel.  But  they  kept  the 
festival  (of  these  gods),  and  presented  peace  offerings  in 
the  temples  of  Saggil  and  Zida,  for  the  preservation  of 
Babylon  and  Borsippa."  Meanwhile  danger  was  closing 
round  the  empire,  for,  '^on  the  21st  Sivan  (our  June)  the 
soldiers  (of  Elam)  invaded  Accad." 

But  six  years  were  to  pass  before  the  final  crisis.  Cyrus 
had  been  unable  to  defeat  the  Babylonian  army  in  Accad, 
and  it  barred  the  way  to  the  great  city.  He,  therefore, 
either  betook  himself  to  intrigue  with  the  people  on  the 
^' lower  sea,"  or  Persian  Gulf,  and  probably  with  the  Jews 
in  Babylonia,  or  invaded  the  lower  provinces  and  subdued 
them.     At  last,   in   B.C.    539,  these  districts  rose  against 

1  Here  Cyrus  calls  himself  king  of  Persia.  Professor  Sayce  is,  therefore,  wrong  In 
saying  that  he  is  called  so  in  Ezra  only,  "  because  the  Persian  empire  was  not  founded 
by  Darius  till  the  time  of  the  compiler  of  that  book." 


REDEMPTION    DRAWING    NIGH.  391 

Nabonidiis,  who  now  trembled  for  his  safety,  and  no  longer 
absented  himself  from  Babylon.  Bel  was  brought  out, 
after  his  long  rest,  and  famous  local  gods,  from  far  and 
near,  were  conveyed  to  the  capital,  that  all,  united,  might 
be  induced,  by  special  public  honours,  to  save  the  im- 
perilled State.  In  the  words  of  the  inscription,  ''^the 
gods  of  Marad — Zamama  and  the  gods  of  Kis — Beltis  and 
the  gods  of  Kharsak-Kalama,  the  gods  of  Accad,  above 
and  below  the  sky,  were  brought  to  Babylon,  but  the  gods 
of  Borsippa,  Cullah  and  Sippara  were  not  brought."  All, 
however,  was  useless,  and  Cyrus  marched  steadily  towards 
the  doomed  city.  His  troops  approached  at  the  same  time 
from  both  north  and  south,  but  as  they  advanced,  the 
cause  of  Nabonidus  was  lost  by  the  revolt  of  Accad.  As 
a  result  of  this,  the  city  of  Sippara  (Sepharvaim)  was  taken 
**  on  the  14th  of  Tammuz  '^  (July)  without  fighting,  the 
king,  who  had  been  in  it,  fleeing  to  Babylon.  But  there 
also,  the  cylinder  tells  us,  no  resistance  worth  the  name 
was  offered,  Gobryas,  governor  of  Kurdistan  (Gutium), 
the  general  of  Cyrus,  entering  the  city  without  a  blow, 
two  days  after  the  fall  of  Sippara.  Nabonidus,  himself, 
who  had  apparently  fled,  was  taken  soon  after  and  put  into 
fetters  at  Babylon.  A  few  bolder  spirits  kept  the  gates  of 
one  of  the  temples  closed  till  the  end  of  the  month ;  but 
they  had  no  weapons,  and  at  last  surrendered  without 
fighting. 

The  public  entry  of  Cyrus  into  Babylon  took  place  on 
the  3d  of  Marchesvan  (October),  immense  crowds  filling 
the  roads  and  streets  as  he  advanced.  True  to  his  policy 
of  moderation,  he  forthwith  granted  an  amnesty,  and  pro- 
claimed peace  to  both  the  city  and  province.  Gobryas,  the 
commander-in-chief  of  the  army,   was  rewarded  by  being 


392  REDEMPTIOiq^    DRAWING    KIGH. 

made  govenior-in-cliief  of  the  city,  and  the  people  in  the 
provinces  were  propitiated  by  the  restoration  to  their  local 
shrines  of  the  images  brought  by  Nabonidus  to  the  capital 
—a  measure  which  was  not  completed  till  the  month  of 
Adar  (February).  In  that  month  Nabonidus  died,  and  a 
public  mourning  for  him,  till  the  third  of  Nisan,  was 
ordered  throughout  Accad.  A  grand  funeral,  arranged 
by  Cambyses,  the  son  of  Cyrus,  closed  the  story  of  the 
unfortunate  monarch,  who  was  buried  in  the  temple  of 
the  Sceptre  of  the  World,  the  priests  of  the  temple  per- 
forming high  obsequies,  and  all  the  people  smiting  their 
heads  in  sorrow.  To  this  point  the  inscription  recording 
these  details  is  legible,  but,  unfortunately,  the  remaining 
text  is  imperfect,  though  enough  remains  intelligible  to 
shew  that  it  recounts  the  honours  paid  by  Cyrus  and  his 
son  to  the  gods  of  Babylonia,  their  offering  sacrifices  to 
Bel,  and  their  replacing  Nebo  in  his  former  shrine. 

Happily  a  third  inscription — that  on  the  '^  cylinder  of 
Cyrus" — supplements  the  narrative  thus  far  recovered.  In 
it  Cyrus  relates  that  the  gods  were  angry  with  Nabonidus 
for  his  neglect  of  their  Avorship. 

"The  gods  dwelling  within  their  shrines  left  them  in  anger  when 
Nabonidus  brought  them  to  Babylon.  Merodach  went  about  to  ail 
men,  wherever  their  seats,  and  the  men  of  Sumir  and  Accad  (Lower 
and  Upper  Babylonia),  whom  he  had  sworn  should  attend  him  (be- 
sought him  to  return).  This  favour  he  granted,  and  came  back.  All 
lands,  even  the  whole  of  them,  rejoiced  and  ate.  And  he  appointed  a 
king  to  guide  aright  in  the  heart  what  his  hand  upholds  ; '  Cyrus,  king 
of  Elam,  he  proclaimed  by  name  sovereign;  all  men  everywhere  dwell 
on  his  name.  The  men  of  Kurdistan  and  all  the  barbarians  (of  Ecba- 
tana — the  Medes)  he  made  bow  down  to  his  feet,  the  men  of  the  black- 
headed  race  (the  Accadians),  whom  he  had  conquered  with  his  hand, 
he  governed  in  justice  and  righteousness.     Merodach,  the  great  lord, 

^  Compare  Isaiah. 


HEDEMlTiON    DRAWING    NIGH.  393 

the  restorer  of  his  people,  beheld  with  joy  the  deeds  of  his  vicegerent, 
who  was  righteous  in  hand  and  heart.  To  his  city  of  Babylon  he  sura- 
raoned  his  march,  and  bade  him  take  the  road  to  Babylon,  going  at 
his  side  like  a  friend  and  comrade.  The  weapons  of  his  vast  army, 
whose  numbers,  like  the  waters  of  a  river,  could  not  be  known,  he 
marshalled  at  his  side.  Without  fighting  or  battle  he  caused  him  to 
enter  Babylon.  His  (Merodach's)  city  of  Babylon  feared.  In  a  place 
difficult  of  access  he  gave  into  his  (Cyrus's)  hand,  Nabonidus,  the  king, 
who  did  not  worship  him.  The  men  of  Babylon,  all  of  them,  and  the 
whole  of  Sumir  and  Accad,  the  nobles  and  priests  who  had  revolted, 
kissed  his  (Cyrus's)  feet;  they  rejoiced  in  his  rule;  their  faces  shone. 
The  god  who  raises  the  dead  to  life,  who  helps  all  men  in  trouble  and 
prayer,  has,  in  goodness,  drawn  nigh  to  him  (Cyrus),  and  has  made 
his  name  strong.  I  am  Cyrus,  the  king  of  legions,  the  great  king,  the 
powerful  king,  the  king  of  Babylon,  the  king  of  Sumir  and  Accad,  the 
king  of  the  four  zones,  the  son  of  Cambyses  the  great  king,  the  king 
of  Elam;  the  great-grandson  of  Teispes,  the  great  king,  the  king  of 
Elam  ;  of  the  ancient  seed-royal,  whose  rule  has  been  beloved  by  B«l 
and  Nebo,  whose  sovereignty  they  cherished,  according  to  the  goodness 
of  their  hearts.  At  that  time  I  entered  Babylon  in  peace,  I  enlarged 
the  seat  of  my  dominion  with  joy  and  gladness  in  the  palace  of  the 
kings.  Merodach,  the  great  lord,  (cheered)  the  heart  of  his  servant, 
whom  the  sons  of  Babylon  (obeyed,  each)  year  and  day.  .  .  .  My 
vast  armies  he  marshalled  peacefully  in  the  midst  of  Babylon;  through- 
out Sumir  and  Accad  no  one  reviled  me.  The  temples  of  Babylon  and 
all  its  fortresses  I  established  in  peace.  As  for  the  sons  of  Babylon 
.  .  .  their  ruins  I  repaired,  and  I  delivered  their  prisoners.  I  pre- 
pared for  the  work  (of  restoring  the  shrine)  of  Merodach,  the  great  lord, 
and  he  graciously  drew  nigh  unto  me,  Cyrus  the  king,  his  worshipper, 
and  to  Cambyses  my  son,  the  offspring  of  my  heart,  and  to  all  my 
army,  and  in  peace  we  duly  restored  its  front  (that  of  the  shrine)  in 
glory. 

"All  the  kings^ho  dwell  in  the  high  places  of  all  regions,  from  the 
Upper  Sea  to  the  Lower  Sea,  who  dwell  in  (the  high  places)  of  the 
kings  of  Phoenicia  and  Sutar,  all  of  them  brought  their  rich  tribute 
and  kissed  my  feet  in  the  midst  of  Babylon.  From  (the  city  of)  .  .  . 
to  the  gates  of  Assur  and  Istar,  .  .  .  Accad,  Marad,  Zamban,  Me- 
Turnat,  and  Duran,  as  far  as  the  borders  of  Kurdistan ;  the  gods  whose 
seats  were  in  the  fortresses  upon  the  Tigris,  I  restored  to  their  seats,  and 
I  built  for  them  shrines  that  would  last  long.  All  these' peoples  I  as- 
sembled and  I  restored  their  lauds.     And  the  gods  of  Sumir  and  Accad, 


394  REDEMPTION   DRAWING   NIGH. 

whom  Nabonidus,  to  the  anger  of  the  lord  of  gods  (Merodach)  had 
brought  to  Babylon,  I  settled  in  peace  in  their  sanctuaries,  by  command 
of  Merodach,  the  great  lord.  In  the  goodness  of  their  hearts  may  all 
the  gods  whom  I  have  brought  back  to  their  strong  places  intercede 
before  Bel  and  Nebo,  that  they  may  grant  me  length  of  days ;  may  they 
bless  ray  schemes  with  success,  and  may  they  say  to  Merodach,  my  lord, 
that  C>ras  the  king,  thy  worshipper,  and  Cambyses  his  son,  (deserve 
his  favour)." 

From  this  and  the  other  priceless  records  of  these  remote 
times,  already  quoted,  it  is  evident  that  Nabonidus  had 
drawn  his  ruin  on  himself,  by  removing  the  images  of  local 
gods  from  their  ancient  sanctuaries,  to  exalt  the  glory  of 
the  capital,  by  making  it  seem  as  if  all  other  deities  were 
inferior  to  Merodach,  and  had  been  put  round  him  as  his 
subordinates.  This,  the  priests  represented  as  having 
roused  the  indignation  of  ''the  lord  of  the  gods/'  thus 
honoured,  and  as  having  led  him  to  reject  the  king,  as  Je- 
hovah had  rejected  Saul,  and  seek  another  ruler,  after  his 
own  heart,  as  in  the  parallel  case  in  Israel.  This  chosen 
one,  it  was  affirmed,  had  been  found  in  Cyrus,  king  of 
Elam,  who  as  the  favourite  of  Merodach,  had  been  com- 
manded by  him  to  march  on  Babylon,  the  god  himself  un- 
dertaking to  march  at  his  side,  as  his  friend  and  comrade. 
The  scribes  of  Babylonia,  in  fact,  saw  in  Cyrus,  who  was 
*' righteous  in  hand  and  heart,"  the  instrument  of  their 
god,  as  the  prophets  of  Judah  had  seen  in  Nebuchadnezzar 
the  instrument  of  Jehovah.  An  annalistic  tahlet,  moreover, 
drawn  up  shortly  after  the  conquest  of  Babylon,  hints  that 
the  Elamite  prince  had  been  secretly  aided  by  a  party  of 
malcontents  in  Chaldaea  itself.  It  is,  at  all  events,  signifi- 
cant, that  on  the  defeat  of  Nabonidus,  the  entire  popula- 
tion submitted,  and  the  capital,  with  its  almost  impregna- 
ble  fortifications,  threw  open  its  gates.     The  anger  of  the 


redemptio:n"  drawiintg  n^igh.  395 

gods  was,  in  fact,  only  a  pious  formula  of  the  priests,  to 
secure  for  themselves,  without  compromising  their  order,  a 
foremost  share  in  the  results  of  the  discontent  of  the  peo- 
ple, which  insured  the  success  of  Cyrus.  Nabonidus  did 
not  belong  to  the  royal  house  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  but  had 
raised  himself  to  the  throne  by  a  revolution.  That  he 
should  have  removed  the  images  of  the  local  gods,  however, 
to  Babylon  made  his  fall  inevitable,  for  it  was  a  sign  that 
the  different  cities  of  Babylonia  were,  henceforth,' to  be 
altogether  eclipsed,  in  religious  as  well  as  political  impor- 
tance, by  the  capital.  It  roused  the  passions  of  all  classes 
alike  :  the  local  priesthoods  seeing  the  ruin  of  their  shrines, 
which  were  their  maintenance  ;  the  local  traders,  the  loss 
of  their  varied  profits  brought  by  the  temples,  and  the  gen- 
eral population  the  affront  to  the  traditions  and  self-love  of 
the  districts  with  which  they  were  identified.  Most  of  the 
cities  thus  dishonoured,  moreover,  were  as  old  as  Babylon, 
or  older,  and  so,  also,  were  their  gods,  for,  though  the  title 
of  ''  Bel  "or  ''  Lord  "  had  come  to  be  applied  to  Merodach 
specially,  there  was  a  more  ancient  '^^  Bel-Belitanas,"  ^^the 
elder  Bel,"  whose  worship  had  spread  from  the  city  of 
Nipur,  and  who  formed  one  of  the  supreme  triad  of 
Babylonian  gods.  The  policy  of  Nabonidus,  therefore,  in 
seeking  to  make  Merodach  absolute  lord  of  a  crowd  of  cap- 
tive deities,  shocked  the  prejudices  of  the  whole  population 
outside  Babylon,  and  prepared  them  to  see  in  Cyrus,  the 
restorer  of  the  gods  to  their  old  homes,  the  pious  adherent 
to  the  ancient  faith  of  the  land,  and  the  real  favourite  of 
Merodach,  himself.  Such  is  the  light  thrown  on  the  fall 
of  Babylon,  by  contemporary  inscriptions.'     The  narrative 

»  Journal  of  N.  Ada/ic  Soc,  vol.  xii.  pp.  80,  ff.     Trans.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  vol.  vii. 
pp.  139-176.     Sayce,  Fresh  Light,  pp.  170-174, 


396  REDEMPTION   DRAWIITG   NIGH. 

of  Herodotus,  which,  if  it  be  actually  historical,  is  thus 
proved*  to  refer  to  the  capture  of  the  city  in  B.C.  518,  a 
generation  later,  by  Darius  Hystaspis,  informs  us  that 
Cyrus,  hopeless  of  taking  the  city  by  a  regular  siege,  low- 
ered the  waters  of  the  Euphrates,  which  flowed  through 
Babylon,  by  digging  canals,  and  thus  diverting  them  from 
their  ordinary  bed,  so  that  his  forces  were  able  to  enter 
freely ;  the  Babylonians,  in  their  panic,  having  forgotten 
to  close  the  inner  gates  which  might  have  saved  them. 

The  brief  statement  of  the  Book  of  Daniel  *  helps  us  to 
fill  up  the  picture  of  the  eventful  night  in  which  the 
mistress  of  the  world  was  thus  surprised  and  taken.  Bel- 
shazzar,  the  eldest  son  of  Nabonidus,  associated  with  him 
on  the  throne,  and  commander-in-chief  of  the  army,  had 
retreated  to  Babylon  after  his  defeat  in  Accad,  and  fancied 
himself  safe  within  its  walls,  notwithstanding  the  recent 
disasters.  Any  lingering  fear  sought  to  drown  itself  in  the 
wild  revelry  of  a  sacrificial  feast  to  the  gods.  A  thousand 
nobles  sat  down  to  the  banquet  ;  the  king  liimself,  with  a 
dazzling  array  of  princes  and  princesses,  and  the  beauties 
of  the  harem,  attending  in  high  state.  High-born  ladies 
were  wont  to  be  present  at  such  orgies  in  Babylon,  and 
rivalled  the  coarser  sex  in  their  shamelessness  and  excess.' 
The  feast,  as  described  in  Daniel,  brings  before  us  a  scene 
of  luxury  and  splendour  only  to  be  found  in  the  greatest  of 
Oriental  courts ;  the  magnificent  hall,  with  its  sculptured 
and  painted  walls  and  its  costly  ceiling,  the  strains  of  sweet 
music  from  antechambers,  the  air  rich  with  costly  per- 
fumes, the  tables  laden  with  gold  and  silver  vessels  of 
every  size  and  shape,  plundered  from  half  a  world  ;  the 

i  Herod.,  i.  191.  2  Dan.  v. 

8  Curtius,  V.  1,  Bays,  that  at  feasts,  the  ladies— "  matrons  and  virgins  "—became 
4e^  to  shame  ae  the  revelry  advanced. 


REDEMPTION"    DRAWING    NIGH.  397 

gorgeous  uniforms  and  robes  of  the  guests,  and  the  blaze  of 
jewels,  made  up  a  display  such  as  could  only  be  witnessed 
in  the  foremost  city  of  the  earth.  As  if  to  deride  the  hopes 
of  the  Jews  in  their  approaching  deliverance,  the  rich 
vessels  of  gold  and  silver  carried  off  by  Nebuchadnezzar, 
two  generations  before,  from  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem, 
and  since  then  stored  in  the  treasury  of  the  temple  of  Bel, 
were  brought  out,  as  part  of  the  boundless  wealth  of  the 
Great  King.  Amidst  the  wilderness  of  splendour  stood 
great  golden  vases  filled  with  the  richest  wines  of  Helbon 
and  Lebanon,  and  from  these,  as  if  in  defiance  of  Jehovah, 
the  sacred  vessels  of  the  Temple  were  filled,  that  the  guests 
might  drink  to  the  health  of  the  gods  which  Babylon 
worshipped/ 

But  the  Keeper  of  Israel,  who  neither  slumbers  nor 
sleeps,  was  at  hand,  to  avenge  Himself  for  the  insult.  In 
the  same  hour,  over  against  one  of  the  many-branched 
lamps  which  filled  the  hall  with  light,  came  forth  fingers 
of  a  man's  hand,  and  wrote  on  the  smooth  stucco  of  the 
wall.  The  revelry  was  hushed  at  once,  and  all  faces  grew 
pale.  The  enchanters,  magi,  and  astrologers  were  sum- 
moned in  hot  haste.  A  purple  robe  of  honour  and  the 
golden  collar  of  '''third  ruler''  of  the  kingdom,  next  to 
Belshazzar  himself,  the  second,  were  promised  as  the 
reward  of  any  one  who  should  interpret  the  mysterious 
symbols.  But  no  one  could  read  them.  Then  the  queen 
mother,  perhaps  Nitocris,  the  daughter  of  Nebuchad- 
nezzar," remembering  how  Daniel,  now  an  old  man,  had 
solved  the  dreams  of  her  father,  long  years  before,  hinted 
that  he,  perhaps,  could  read  the  awful  characters.  And 
now,  the  hoary  prophet,  emerging  for  a  moment,  by  com- 

1  Dan.  V.  4.    Bar.  vi.  4.  *  Herod.,  i.  185. 


398  REDEMPTIOIT   DRAWING   KIGH. 

mand,  from  long  seclusion,  once  more  vindicates  the 
Eternal,  in  whose  name  he  speaks.  '^The  words/^  which 
were  Aramaic,  ^"^  mean/'  cries  the  seer,  " '^  numbering,* 
'weighing,'  and  'breaking,'  and  tell,  from  above,  that  God 
has  numbered  thy  kingdom,  0  king,  and  finished  it  ;  that 
thou  art  weighed  in  the  balances,  and  found  wanting  ;  and 
that  thy  kingdom  is  divided  and  given  to  the  Medes  and 
Persians."  '  True  to  history,  the  sacred  chronicle  mentions 
the  Medes  first,  and  next  the  Persians,  not  the  Elamites — 
Cyrus  himself,  as  we  have  seen  on  his  cylinder,  having 
latterly  assumed  this  style,  though  the  Medes,  as  the  older 
nation,  are  flattered  by  having  the  first  place  assigned 
them ;  Persian  authority  not  being  as  yet  indisputably 
supreme. 

^'In  that  night  was  Belshazzar,  the  king  of  the  Ohal- 
daeans,  slain."  Chariot  and  horse  and  footman  had  entered 
the  city  by  the  help  of  traitors  within.  The  hundred  two- 
leaved  gates  of  bronze,'  the  mighty  walls,  and  the  glittering 
legions,  on  which  the  Great  King  so  proudly  relied,  had 
been  useless  to  stay  the  invader.  In  the  panic  of  sudden 
and  awful  surprise,  the  guards  fled  from  the  inner  gates, 
leading  from  the  river  banks  to  the  city,  leaving  them 
open.  The  predictions  of  the  prophets  were  literally 
fulfilled.  Babylon  had  ''  suddenly  fallen."  Its  mighty 
men,  palsied  with  fear,  made  no  resistance  while  the  fierce 
mountaineers  of  Media  and  Elam  marched  through  the 
silent  streets.  In  so  vast  a  place,  the  conquerors  had 
triumphed  at  one  end  before  news  of  the  attack  reached 
the  other ;  but  running  footmen  speedily  carried  the 
terrible  story  to  the  king.  All  was  lost ;  every  way  of 
escape  stopped,  the  great  public  buildings  in  flames,  and 

»  Dan.  ▼.  26-28.  •  iBa.  xlv.  1,  2.    Herod.,  i.  129. 


REDEMPTION    DRAWING    NIGH.  399 

the  soldiery  too  demoralized  to  fight.*  The  foe,  swarming 
like  locusts,  knew  no  pity,  but  slaughtered  the  unresisting 
population  like  sheep.'  Bel  bowed  down,  Nebo  stooped, 
unable  to  protect  their  votaries.'  Belshazzar  himself 
perished  amidst  the  flower  of  his  court,  perhaps  in  a  vain 
attempt  at  resistance.  Babylon,  the  terror  of  the  earth, 
the  oppressor  of  nations,  was  humbled  at  last.  The  shock 
of  her  fall  was  felt  by  all  lands.  The  sacking  of  London 
by  a  sudden  surprise,  and  the  subversion  of  the  British 
empire,  would  be  the  only  parallel  event  in  our  own  day. 

The  transition  from  the  Chaldsean  dynasty  to  the  rule  of 
the  conquerors  followed  at  once,  for  resistance  appears  to 
have  ceased  after  the  taking  of  Babylon.  Cyrus  was  now 
supreme  over  all  Asia,  from  India  to  the  Dardanelles ; 
but,  though  the  moving  spirit  of  this  vast  revolution,  the 
obscurity  of  his  original  position  as  king  only  of  Elam,  and 
his  relations  to  the  Medes,  and  perhaps  the  Persians,  seem 
to  have  led  him  for  the  time  to  deny  himself  the  titular 
sovereignty.  A  Median  prince  appears,  therefore,  to  have 
been  put  forward  by  him  as  the  nominal  king,  though  the 
real  power  remained  in  his  own  hands.  Elam  and  Persia 
had  been  hitherto  very  inferior  in  power  and  rank  to 
Media,  the  haughty  clans  of  which  followed  him  rather  as 
their  adopted  chief  than  as  their  conqueror  ;  and  the  time 
was  not  yet  ripe  for  affronting  this  proud  assumption  of 
independence.  Cyrus  had  gained  the  leadership  by  affect= 
ing  to  liberate  Media  from  a  tyrannical  despot,  and  the 
support  of  the  aristocracy  and  army  had  been  won  only  by 
this  diplomacy.  A  Median  prince  was  therefore  established 
for  the  time  as  king  in  Babylon — Darius,  the  son  of  Ahas- 
uerus  or  Cyaxares,  a  childless  and  easily-managed  man  of 

>  Jer.  li.  8,  SO,  31.  *  Jer.  U.  4a  •  Isa.  zlri.  1. 


400  REDEMPTIOIT   DRAWIN^G   NIGH. 

sixty-two.  Two  years  later  this  phantom  king  died,  and 
no  further  opposition  to  the  accession  of  Cyrus,  as  an 
Elamite,  being  possible,  he  openly  assumed  the  empire.' 

The  nominal  reign  of  Darius  extended  from  B.C.  538 
to  B.C.  536,  but  has  left  no  recorded  incident  except  that 
of  the  deliverance  of  the  prophet  Daniel  from  the  den  of 
lions.  The  new  empire  had  been  divided  into  120  prov- 
inces, each  under  its  own  governor,  with  three  Sarekin,'*  or 
presidents,  at  their  head,  of  whom  Daniel  was  one.''  That 
he  should  have  been  thus  honoured  was  natural,  from  his 
services  to  the  great  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  the  impressive- 
ness  of  his  recent  appearance  at  the  last  feast  of  Belshazzar. 
But  the  elevation  of  a  Jew  who  slighted  the  local  gods, 
roused  the  jealousy  of  the  native  aristocracy,  and  led  to  a 

*  The  identification  of  Darius  mentioned  in  Dan.  v.  31,  etc.,  has  given  rise  to  much 
controversy.  That  there  should  be  difficulty  about  a  merc^ly  titular  king,  when 
Cyrus  was  the  actual  ruler,  it;  natural.  Various  explanations  have  been  given,  but 
the  one  in  the  text  seems  the  most  satisfactory.  For  a  full  discussion  of  the  subject, 
Bee  Trans.  Soc.  Bib.  A/rh.,\o].  vi.  pp.  1-133.  Speaker's  Cam.,  "  Daniel,"  pp.  305-313. 
Boscawen  thinks  Darius  is  only  a  title— the  king.  So  does  Ernest  Bunsen.  Vigour- 
oux  adds  the  idea  that  "Ugbaru,"  who  is  named  in  an  inscription  by  Cyrus,  is  the 
same  as  Darius  (vol.  iv.  p.  4S3).  Lenormant  advances,  in  connection  with  the 
appointment  of  this  personage,  a  proof  that  Cyrus  had  not  royal  power  at  once,  in  the 
fact  that  in  the  first  and  second  years  he  is  only  called  ''  king  of  nations,"  and  not 
till  the  tWrd  year  "  king  of  Babylon."  ia  Z>mnai!io/!,  pp.  181-2.  "  Babylon,"  in 
Annates  de  Philos.  Chretienne,  1881,  p.  680.  The  explanation  of  Josephus,  which 
has  been  the  one  most  in  favour,  is,  that  the  king  intended  was  the  son  of  Astyages, 
known  as  Cyaxares  II.,  uncle  of  Cyrus,  as  Xenophon  tells  us  {Cyrop.,  1.  v.  2).  Under 
him  Cyrus  fought  the  Lydians,  and  for  him  he  took  Babylon,  receiving  as  his  reward 
the  daughter  of  Cyaxares,  as  wife,  and  the  heirship  to  the  throne  of  the  Medes.  But, 
whatever  the  solutfon,  it  seems  un philosophical  to  decide  dogmatically  against  the 
correctness  of  the  Scripture  statement,  where  so  little  is  actually  known,  and  it  is 
inconceivable  that  one  so  intimately  acquainted  with  Babylonian  life  as  the  author  of 
the  Book  of  Daniel,  could  have  given  a  wrong  name,  or  committed  a  historical  mis- 
take, in  a  matter  that  must  have  been  so  well  known  at  the  time.  The  recovery  of 
ample  details  respecting  Sargon  of  Assyria,  who,  though  one  of  the  greatest  of  the 
rulers  of  Nineveh,  was,  till  a  few  years  ago,  known  only  by  a  single  mention  of  his 
name,  in  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah,  and  was,  hence,  regarded  as  being  only  a  mistake 
of  the  prophet,  is  enough  to  make  ua  very  diffident  respecting  Darius  the  Made  being 
a  mistake  for  Darius  Hystaspis. 

8  Apparently  an  Assyrian  word.  •  Not  "  first.** 


REDEMPTION    DRAWING    NIGH. 


401 


plot  for  the  destruction  of  the  prophet,  who  was  now  at 
least  eighty  years  old  ;  having  been  carried  to  Babylon  as 
a  youth  in  the  year  B.C.  606. 

The  story  of  the  den  of  lions  is  strictly  in  keeping  with 
Babylonian  usages.  Assurbanipal  says  in  his  annals,  ''  The 
rest  of  the  people  I  threw  alive  into  the  midst  of  the  bulls 
and  lions,  as  Sennacherib  my  grandfather  used  to  do.^^* 
Lions  abounded  round  the  great  city,  and  the  Great  King 
is  frequently  portrayed  in  the  sculptures  as  engaged  in 
their  pursuit.'     It  is  probable,  moreover,  that  numbers  of 


The  Great  King  hunting  the  Lion, 


captive  lions  were  kept  in  the  preserves  attached  to  the 
palaces,  to  be  turned  out  for  the  chase  when  the  king 
wished.^ 

His  religious  fidelity  was  the  only  point  on  which  Daniel 
could  be  assailed.  From  the  earliest  ages  the  kings  of 
Babylon  had  claimed  to  be  Divine,*  and  it  was  therefore 
easy  to  procure  an  order  from  Darius  to  require  all  '^peti- 

»  Tram.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  vol.  ii.  p.  362. 
«  See  Hommers  Z^vei  Jagdinschriften  Assurbanipal' 8,  p.  2. 
3  Layard,  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  vol.  xxiv.  pp.  136,  271,  288. 
*  Records  of  the  Past,  vol.  i.  p.  8.    Oppert,  Inscriptions,  p.  16. 

VOL.  VI. -26 


402  KEDEMPTION   DRAWING    NIGH. 

tions  "  to  be  made  for  thirty  days,  only  to  himself.  To 
obey  such  a  decree  was  impossible  to  one  like  the  prophet. 
His  conduct  when  it  was  signed  and  thus  irreversible,  was 
in  keeping  with  liis  past  character,  and  has  ever  since 
presented  an  ideal  of  duty,  when  a  choice  is  demanded 
between  obedience  to  God  or  to  man.  '^  He  went  into  his 
house,  and  his  windows  in  his  chamber  (on  the  roof)  being 
open  towards  Jerusalem  (for  prayer),  he  kneeled  upon  his 
knees  three  times  a  day,  and  prayed,  and  gave  thanks  before 
his  God,  as  he  did  aforetime.'"'  What  followed  is  known 
to  us  all.  Delivered  from  the  lions,  Daniel  "  prospered  in 
the  reign  of  Darius  and  in  the  reign  of  Cyrus  the  Persian," 
whom  he  may  have  been  largely  instrumental  in  moving  to 
send  back  the  Hebrews  to  Palestine. 

The  seventy  years  of  the  Captivity,'  dating  from  B.C. 
606 — ^the  fourth  year  of  Jehoiakim,  when  Daniel  and 
many  others  were  carried  off  to  Babylon — to  the  accession 
of  Cyrus  as  sole  king,  in  B.C.  536,  had  now  expired,  and 
the  sure  word  of  prophecy  could  not  fail.  Other  influ- 
ences, besides  that  of  Daniel,  tended  to  its  fulfilment. 
The  very  fact  that  the  king^s  name  stood  written  in 
Jewish  predictions  ^  as  that  of  the  deliverer  of  the  nation, 
could  hardly  have  failed  to  impress  him.  Joseplius,  in- 
deed, expressly  ascribes  to  this  the  favourable  action 
taken.  ^  But,  in  addition,  the  interests  of  the  exiles  may 
have  been  advanced  by  Jews  in  the  court  service,*  and  by 
Babylonian  proselytes  of  high  standing.  Nor  were  motives 
of  human  policy  wanting.  It  would  help  the  emiDire  if  a 
friendly    people    were    established    under    its    protection. 


1  Jer.  XXV.  11  ;  xxix.  10.    2  Chron.  xxxvi.  21. 

2  Isa.  xli.  25,  ff.  ;  xliv.  28:;  ^clv.  l,flf. 

3  Jos.,  Ant.,  XI.  i.  1.  ■»  Dan.  i.  6. 


REDEMPTION    DRAWING    NIGH. 


403 


between  its  territories  and  Egypt,  the  liereditary  rival  for 
dominion  over  Western  Asia. 

The  decree  which  fulfilled  the 
announcements  of  prophecy,  is 
reproduced  in  the  first  chapter 
of  Ezra.'  It  not  only  permits 
the  Jews,  in  every  part  of  the 
empire,  to  ''go  up  to  Jerusalem '* 
to  rebuild  the  Temple  of  Jeho- 
vah, but  invites  help  for  them,  in 
silver,  gold,  goods,  and  beasts. 
The  similarity  of  its  style  and 
language  to  those  of  other  Per- 
sian proclamations  is  striking. 
Thus,  for  example,  that  of  Darius 
Hystaspis,  in  the  inscription  at 
El  vend,  requires  only  the  substitu- 
tion of  Jehovah  for  Ormuzd,  to  be 
almost  identical  with  the  words 
of  Cyrus.  ''The  great  god  Or- 
muzd," says  he,  "  the  greatest  of 
gods,  who  created  the  earth  and 
the  heavens  and  men,  and  gave 
power  to  men,  and  made  Darius 
king."'  Nearly  the  same  lan- 
guage occurs  in  the  inscription 
of  the  same  monarch  at  Persep- 
olis.'  It  was  natural,  therefore, 
for  Cyrus  to  introduce  the  name  of  a  god,  as  he  does  in  his 

>  Ezra  i.  2-4. 

9  Menant,  Expose  des  Elements  de  la  gram.  Assyrienne,  Paris,  p.  302.    Beeords  oj 
tht  Past,  vol.  ix.  p.  78. 
'  Records  of  the  Past,  vol.  ix.  p.  74. 


404  REDEMPTION    DRAWING    NIGH. 

decree,  though  his  mention  of  Jehovah,  as  shewn  in  his 
^wn  inscriptions  already  given,  was  only  that  of  a  poly- 
theist,  willing  to  honour  the  national  god  of  any  people, 
if  occasion  demanded.  Neither  he  nor  Darius  Hystaspis, 
indeed,  was  ever  a  monotheist,  though  both  have  always 
been  thus  regarded.  Policy  dictated  the  fullest  toleration  of 
all  the  religions  of  the  empire.  '^'Ormuzd,  the  god  of  the 
Aryans/^  says  Darius,  at  the  close  of  his  life,  "was  my  sup- 
joorter,  and  the  otlier  gods,  because  I  have  not  been  wicked. 
I  have  not  been  a  liar  nor  a  criminal,  neither  I  nor  my  fam- 
ily. I  have  committed  no  violence  to  the  just  or  the  good. 
The  man  who  was  loyal  to  my  house  I  heartily  protected  ; 
him  who  sinned,  I  slew.  I  never  did  violence  to  a  brave 
warrior. '^ '  Cambyses,  the  son  of  Cyrus,  moreover,  is  shewn 
by  the  Egyptian  monuments,  to  have  continued  a  tolerant 
polytheist,  like  his  father,  for  the  inscriptions  on  the  Nile 
praise  him  as  the  friend  of  the  priests  of  Egypt,  the  adorer 
of  the  gods,  and  the  benefactor  of  their  temples.  On  the 
sarcophagus  of  the  sacred  bull  which  died  while  he  was  in 
the  Nile  valley,  there  is,  further,  a  sculpture  shewing  him 
kneeling  before  the  ox-god,  while  an  inscription  records 
that  it  was  honoured  with  the  usual  grand  funeral,  and 
that  Cambyses  took  part  in  the  solemnity.  In  the  same 
spirit,  we  have  seen  Cyrus  recording  that  he  repaired  the 
shrine  of  ''  Merodach,  his  lord,^^  and  restored  to  their 
places  the  gods  who  dwelt  among  various  peoples  enu- 
merated, and  that  he  prays  to  Merodach,  as  his  worshipper, 
for  himself  and  his  son.' 

»  Oppert,  Lepmple  et  la  langue  des  Medes,  p.  151.  Yet  Darius  was  severe  enough 
when  he  chose.  He  tells  us  that  he  cut  off  the  nose  and  ears  of  a  pretender  to  the 
irown,  and  dugout  his  eyes  ;  after  which  he  kept  him  chained  in  public  for  all  the 
people  to  see,  and  finally  crucified  him.  Oppert,  p.  133.  Sayce  speaks  of  Darius 
being  a  Zoroastrian  monotheist  {Fresh  Light,  p.  176),  but  the  inscription  quoted 
ibove,  shews  this  to  be  an  error.  a  P.  346. 


REDEMPTION    DRAWING   NIGH.  405 

Cyrus  was  thus  precisely  the  man  to  shew  favour  to  the 
servants  of  Jehovah,  the  Jewish  God,  since  he  made  it  a 
point  to  support  all  religions  in  turn,  that  he  might  win 
the  loyalty  of  their  respective  adherents.  AVhile,  therefore, 
he  honoured  the  God  of  the  Hebrews  in  high-sounding 
phrases,  we  cannot  claim  him  as  more  than  a  shrewd  poli- 
tician, using  language  which  served  a  temporary  end  and 
might  perhaps  gain  him  the  help  of  one  god  the  more.  But 
whatever  his  secret  thoughts,  he  had  fulfilled  the  decree 
of  Providence,  and  opened  the  gates  of  Babylon  to  the 
exiles,  that  they  might  return  freely  to  their  own  land, 
and  restore  the  long-fallen  kingdom  of  God. 

The  story  of  Babylon,  after  its  conquest  by  Cyrus,  is 
a  record  of  swift  decay.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  son 
Cambyses,  who  was  followed,  after  the  suppression  of  a 
pretender — "  the  false  Bardis  " — by  Darius,  the  son  of  Hys- 
taspis,  and  the  real  founder  of  the  Persian  empire.  Twice 
during  his  reign  he  had  to  recapture  the  mighty  city. 
Very  soon  after  his  accession,  it  revolted  under  a  leader 
who  claimed  to  be  the  great  Nebuchadnezzar,  son  of  Na- 
bonidus,  and  was  recovered,  after  a  siege  of  two  years, 
only  by  stratagem.  Six  years  later  it  rose  again,  under  an 
Armenian,  who,  also,  claimed  to  be  Nebuchadnezzar.  It 
was,  however,  once  more  besieged  and  taken  ;  the  poor 
phantom  king  suffering  death  by  impalement.  On  this 
second  recovery  of  the  great  city,  Darius  protected  him- 
self against  further  trouble  from  it,  by  throwing  down  its 
mountain- like  walls,  and  his  son,  Xerxes,  completed  its 
humiliation,  by  destroying  the  great  temple  of  Bel,  and 
carrying  off  the  golden  statue  of  the  god,  and  the  accumu- 
lated wealth  of  the  sacred  treasuries.  Babylon,  however, 
still  remained  one  of  the  capitals  of  the  Persian  empire 


406  REDEMPTIOI^^   DRAWI2»TG   l^IGH. 

till  the  rise  of  the  city  of  Seleucia,  in  the  year  B.c,  300, 
after  the  death  of  Alexander  the  G-reat,  in  B.  c.  324.  From 
that  time,  it  gradually  decayed,  till  its  palaces  became 
mounds  of  rubbish,  in  terrible  fulfilment  of  the  words 
of  Isaiah,  spoken  centuries  beforec 


CHAPTER  XVIL 

THE   RETURN. 

The  glowing  words  of  the  prophets  respecting  Cyrus 
had  kindled  a  fervent  loyalty  to  him  in  the  breasts  of 
the  exiles.  He  had  been  proclaimed  the  '^  Shepherd  ^^  of 
Jehovah,  His  "  anointed,  whom  Jehovah  had  called  from 
the  East "  to  free  His  chosen  people  and  rebuild  His 
temple.  Fortunately,  the  Phoenicians  were  also  devoted 
admirers  of  the  great  king.  They  stood  between  him 
and  Egypt  on  the  north  of  Palestine  ;  the  Jews  would  do  a 
similar  service  on  the  south.  Policy  dictated  special  favour 
under  such  circumstances.  Hence  the  exiles  were  not  only 
permitted  to  take  all  their  private  property  with  them  ; 
their  brethren  and  others  were  encouraged  to  help  them  in 
their  great  undertaking.  The  joy  at  the  national  deliver- 
ance was  unbounded.  Even  the  imagery  of  the  prophets 
seemed  inadequate  to  express  it.  Men  could  now,  once 
more,  say  among  the  heathen  that  Jehovah  reigned.' 

When  Jehovah  led  back  the  captives  of  Zion — sang  one 
of  the  poets  of  the  day — 

*'  We  were  like  them  that  dream; 
Then  was  our  mouth  filled  with  laughter. 
And  our  tongue  with  singing. 
Then  was  it  said  among  the  heathen: 
'  Jehovah  has  done  great  things  for  them.* 
Yes  !  Jehovah  has  done  great  things  for  us, 

»  Ps.  xcvi.  10.    See  alsoPs.  xcvii.,  xcix. 


408  THE    RETURN. 

And  made  us  glad. 

0  Jehovah,  lead  back  our  captive  ones? 
Let  them  roll  on  the  now  desolate  land 
With  a  flood  full  as  the  torrents  of  the  Negeb 
In  the  time  of  a  winter  storm."  ' 

The  prospect  before  those  who  returned  was  for  the 
time  sad;  for  Jerusalem  lay  in  heaps,  and  must  be  re- 
built amidst  many  difficulties.     But 

**  They  that  sow  in  tears  will  reap  in  joy  ; 
He  that  goes  afield  weeping,  to  scatter  his  armful  of  seed, 
Will  (one  day)  come  from  it  again  bearing  His  sheaves." 

There  was  both  joy  and  a  thoughtful  sadness  among 
the  exiles.  Far  and  near  throughout  the  empire,  heralds 
proclaimed  the  good  news  that  made  every  Jew  a  free 
man.  Multitudes  had  been  sold  as  slaves  when  first 
brought  from  Judali  ;  not  a  few  to  hard  masters.  But 
now  they  that  '^sat  in  darkness  and  in  the  shadow  of 
death,  bound  in  affliction  and  iron,"  found  their  prison 
gates  thrown  open,  and  their  bands  broken  in  sunder.* 
As  the  news  travelled  from  land  to  land,  the  best  of  the 
race  set  their  faces,  from  every  region,  towards  Jerusalem. 
Not  a  few,  we  may  believe,  found  their  way  to  the  loved 
spot,  from  the  West,  by  sea,'  making  light  of  any  suffering 
it  brought,  if  only,  at  last,  they  stood  once  more  in  Zion. 
The  route  of  many,  from  the  distant  East,  did  not  pass 
near  Babylon,  and  they  could  only  reach  Palestine  long 
after  the  main  body  of  their  brethren.  A  kindlier  feeling 
had  latterly  been  cherished  by  some  of  the  native  popula- 
tion towards  the  exiles ;  and  now  that  royalty  smiled  on 
them,  they  were  loaded  Avith  favour.    The  richer  Jews,  con- 

^  Ps.  cxxvi.    This  seems  the  meauing  of  this  figure  ;  see  vol.  v.  p.  3.53. 
2  Pb.  cvii.  10-14.  3  Pe.  cvii.  23-30. 


THE   RETURK.  409 

tented  with  their  position,  preferred,  for  the  most  part,  to 
remain  in  Babylon.*  But  while  themselves  faint-hearted, 
they  were  proud  of  the  braver  spirits,  who,  having  little 
to  lose,  more  readily  joined  the  great  movement,  and  they 
liberally  contributed  whatever  might  be  useful  on  the  way 
or  in  Palestine.  Cyrus,  himself,  commanded  his  treasurer, 
Mithridates,  to  hand  over,  from  the  treasure  house  of  the 
Temple  of  Bel,  to  those  about  to  return,  all  the  sacred 
vessels  of  gold  and  silver  carried  off  by  N'ebuchadnezzar  at 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  No  fewer  than  5,400  sal- 
vers, cups,  tankards,  spoons,  basins,  etc.,  of  the  precious 
metals,  were  thus  once  more  delivered  to  the  priests.' 
Beasts  of  burden,  supplies  of  food,  and  all  the  require- 
ments of  the  journey  and  its  subsequent  object,  seem  to 
have  been  liberally  added,  with  much  besides,  toward  the 
great  object  of  restoring  the  worship  of  the  Temple  on 
Mount  Zion. 

The  body  of  pilgrims,  of  both  sexes,  found  at  last  willing 
to  face  the  perils  of  the  desert,  and  of  their  ruined  native 
land,  amounted  to  no  more  than  42,360,  including  children 
above  twelve  years  of  age.'  Besides  these,  there  were  7,337 
male  and  female  slaves,  200  of  them  trained  singers  and 
musicians.  Of  the  twenty-four  priestly  ^^  courses,'*  only 
four  had  representatives,  although  the  number  of  these 
was  over  4,000  ;  *  nearly  a  tenth  of  the  whole  caravan. 
The  enterprise  was  especially  fitted  to  attract  the  sacred 
orders  ;  but  the  indifference  of  twenty  of  the  priestly  clans 
out  of  twenty-four  shews  how  wide  must  have  been  the 

1  An  inscription  gives  a  glimpse  of  ordinary  Babylonian  life  in  these  times.  A 
lady  receives  as  her  dowry  35  mana  of  silver,  and  2  inana  of  gold,  a  ring,  and  two 
slaves.  With  these  she  purchases  a  com-tield,  planted  and  tilled,  and  thus  has  the 
means  of  living,  permanently  secured  her.    Bab.  and  OHent.  Record,  ii.  8. 

2  Ezra  i.  7|;  v.  14.    ii  Chron.  xxxvi.  lu.    ;jer.  xxvii.  16-22  ;  xxviii.  2,  3.    Dan.  v,  3. 
»  This  is  stated  iu  1  Bad.  v.  41.  *  Ezra  ii.  36-39. 


410  THE   RETURN. 

defection  of  the  exiles  at  large,  from  the  faith  of  their 
fathers,  or,  at  least,  how  faint  was  their  enthusiasm  for 
it.  Still,  the  presence  of  so  many  priests  as  actually  set 
out  from  Babylon,  lent  a  dignity  to  the  whole  body  of 
Pilgrim  Fathers  whom  they  accompanied.  Honoured  for 
their  high  descent  and  venerated  office,  they  formed,  more- 
over, a  nucleus  round  which  the  religious  life  of  the  new 
colony  might  gather.  But  the  general  indifference  or 
apostasy  of  their  order  was  insignificant  compared  with 
that  of  the  Levites.  Formerly  much  more  numerous  than 
the  priests,  only  seventy-four  cared  to  leave  Babylon.  A 
defection  so  striking  was  destined  to  have  important  re- 
sults. Hitherto  humble  in  their  position,  the  fewness  of 
the  Levites  in  the  new  community  henceforth  led  to  a 
constant  struggle  for  equality  with  their  more  favoured 
brethren,  though  they  gained  it  only  at  the  latest  period 
of  the  nation.  Besides  the  Levites  strictly  so  called,  there 
were,  however,  some  of  the  two  lower  grades  of  the  Leviti- 
cal  order  ;  128  singers  of  the  clan  of  Asaph,  and  139  of 
the  order  of  Temple  police,  who  guarded  the  gates  and  cir- 
cuit of  the  sacred  building  ;  descendants  of  the  men  who, 
under  Jehoiada,  had  destroyed  the  heathen  tyranny  of 
Athaliah.* 

Besides  these,  there  was  a  band  of  392  ''  Nethinim,'' 
that  is,  persons  *' given ^' or '^devoted,"  as  Temple  slaves, 
under  the  Levites,  and  other  unfortunates  known  as  the 
'^  slaves  of  Solomon. '^  The  Nethinim  seem  to  have  been 
handed  over  to  this  humble  service  as  an  organized  body, 
by  David,'*  and  possibly  embraced  part  of  the  descendants 
of  the  Canaanites  who  were  enslaved  in  the  days  of  Joshua." 
An   examination   of   the   list   of   Nethinim   names,   given 

t  See  vol.  iv.  p.  159.  «  Ezra  viii.  20.  *  Josh.  ix.  21-37. 


THE   RETURK.  411 

in  Ezra  and  !N"eliemiaTi,'  shews  that  these  people  were 
mainly  the  posterity  of  those  who  could  not  trace  them- 
selves to  any  legitimate  father — that  is,  of  bastards,  or  chil- 
dren of  fornication.  Illegitimates  and  Nethinim  were  not 
allowed  to  marry  Israelites  :  a  prohibition  extending  to  both 
sexes.  Hence  they  were  pariahs,  cut  off  from  the  nation 
and  utterly  despised.  Moabites,  Ammonites,  Egyptians, 
and  Edomites,  were  prohibited  from  marrying  Israelites 
only  for  a  certain  number  of  generations,  and  this  did  not 
apply  at  all  to  the  daughters.  The  Gibeonites,  from  whom 
the  Nethinim  have  often  been  thought  to  have  descended, 
were  not  degraded  like  this  outcast  race,  for  David  allowed 
them  to  revenge  themselves  on  SauFs  children,  for  injuries 
done  to  them  by  Saul,'  and  they  built  part  of  the  wall  of 
Jerusalem,  after  the  Return.^  The  name-lists  shew  that  one 
division  of  these  Temple  slaves  had  charge  of  the  ^'^ rings" 
of  the  Temple  hangings,*  and  another,  of  the  "  hooks,"  ^ 
while  a  third,  perhaps,  sheared  the  sheep  offered  for  sacri- 
fice in  the  Temple.  There  were  writers,  moreover,  among 
them,  connected  with  the  sacred  rolls,  and  pourers  of 
libations.  In  these  offices  other  bodies  were  associated 
with  them — descendants  of  prisoners  of  war — the  B'nai 
Me'unim,"  the  B'uai  Nephisim,  and  the  B'nai  Rezin,  prob- 
ably descendants  of  prisoners  taken  in  the  wars  with  the 
Syrian  king  of  that  name.'  A  very  large  number  of 
names  shew  by  their  form  that  they  are  derived  from  a 
feminine  original. 

The  women  from  whom  the  Nethinim  were  mainly  de- 
scended are  supposed,  with  great  probability,  to  have  been 
the  prostitutes  attached  to  the  Temple,  from  the  time  of 

»  Ezra  ii.    Neh.  vii.  «  2  Sara.  xxii.  9.  '  Neh.  iii.  7. 

*  Exod.  XXV.  12 ;  xxvi.  24  ;  xxviii.  28.  '  Exod.  xxvi.  6  ;  xxxv.  11. 

«  2  Chron.  xxvi.  7.    Ezra  ii.  50.  '  2  Kings  xv.  37  ;  xvi.  5. 


413  THE  RETURK« 

Solomon.  The  original  "  slaves  of  Solomon ''  were  prol)- 
ably  women  of  this  class  ;  the  foreign  gods  and  goddesses 
that  king  introduced  bringing  them  with  them.  They, 
nndoubtedly,  existed  in  connection  with  the  Temple  down 
to  the  Exile.*  The  sacred  prostitutes  are  called  in  the 
Hebrew  Bible,  Kedaishah  (female),  and  Kadaish  (an  emas- 
culated male).  The  men  were  consecrated  to  the  service 
of  Venus  or  Astarte,  and  were  temple  slaves  of  Astarte 
or  Ashtoreth.  They  wore  a  female  dress,  and  wandered, 
begging  for  the  goddess,  from  town  to  town,  as  I  have 
elsewhere  described  ;  the  money  paid  them  by  women  being 
part  of  the  income  of  the  temple.'  The  women  prosti- 
tutes, also,  gave  their  hire  to  the  temple  to  which  they 
were  attached. 

At  a  time  when  religious  enthusiasm  ran  so  high,  it  was 
natural  that  great  care  should  be  taken  in  registering  the 
free  citizens  and  priests  allowed  to  take  part  in  the  great 
migration,  since  the  inheritance  of  property  and  the  legal 
discharge  of  the  offices  of  religion  depended  on  family  de- 
scent. Failure  to  satisfy  the  registrars  did  not  indeed  pre- 
vent the  return  of  any  one  with  his  brethren  to  Palestine, 
but  it  withheld  some  privileges  from  laymen,  and  excluded 
priests  from  the  exercise  of  their  office.  Nor  were  strict 
precautions  uncalled  for.  At  least  one  body  of  intending 
emigrants  from  an  outlying  part  of  Chaldaea — perhaps  a 
remnant  of  some  ancient  deportation  from  Palestine — were 
not  able  to  '^shew  their  father's  house," or  give  their  pedi- 
gree,^ while  another,  claiming  priestly  rank,  on  the  ground 
of  descent  from  Barzillai,  the  friend  of  David,  failing  to 

>  1  Kings  ii.  5  ;  xiv.  24  ;  xv.  12.  2  Kin^^^s  xxi.  7;  xxiii.  7  ;  xxiv.  9,  19.  Ezek. 
xxiii.  36-44. 

2  Gen.  xxxviii.  21,  22.  Deut.  xxiii.  18.  Hos.  iv.  14,  etc.  See  Bab.  and  Oriental 
Record,  ii.  66-71.  3  Ezra  ii.  59. 


THE  RETURK.  413 

prove  their  Aaronic  descent,  were  pronounced  disqualified 
for  sacred  duties,  till  their  position  could  be  settled  by  the 
high-priestly  Urim  and  Thummim,'  which,  however,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  disappeared  with  the  Captivity.  This 
mysterious  ornament  may  have  been  overlooked  in  the 
restoration  of  sacred  objects  by  Cyrus,  but  more  probably 
it  had  been  lost  at  the  destruction  of  the  Temple.  What- 
ever its  fate,  it  was  never  seen  after  the  Return. 

At  the  head  of  the  migration  were  two  men,  specially 
fitted  for  their  position.  Foremost  stood  Zerubbabel,  '^the 
Prince  of  Judah,''  a  grandson  of  the  popular  king,  Jehoia- 
cliin,  and  thus  a  descendant  of  the  great  national  hero, 
David — the  only  person  of  royal  blood  who  returned  at  this 
time,  though  others  followed  at  a  later  period.'^  His  name 
seems  to  indicate  that  he  was  born  in  Babylonia,^  presum- 
ably in  the  earlier  years  of  the  Captivity,  tliough,  like 
Daniel,  he  had  also  a  Chaldaean  name,  Sheshbazzar."  Alive 
twenty  years  later,  he  could  not,  however,  at  this  time  have 
been  very  old.  Next  him  stood  Joshua,  the  high  priest, 
grandson  of  the  high  priest  Seraiab,  whom  Nebuchadnez- 
zar had  put  to  death  at  Eiblah,  after  the  fall  of  the  Holy 
City.^  In  these  two  the  multitude  had  leaders  whose  per- 
sonal claims  were  strengthened  by  hereditary  rank.  Nor 
were  tliose  who  followed  them  unworthy  of  such  chiefs ; 
for,  apart  from  the  body  of  priests,  even  the  rank  and  file 
were  descended  from  the  flower  of  the  nation,  carried  off 
with  King  Jehoiachin,  from  Judah  and  Benjamin.  Ten 
leaders,  under  Zerubbabel  and  Joshua,  making  twelve  in 

1  Ezra  ii.  63.     1  Esd.  v.  36^0.  «  Ezra  i.  8  ;  v.  14. 

3  "Zeiua  Babel  "  =  begotten  in  Babylon. 

*  Gesenius  and  Dietrich  think  this  name  Persian,  meaning  "  Pire-worshipper.*' 
FQrHt  suggests  the  Sanscrit  word  lor  "  illustrious." 
^  1  Chron.  vi.  14.    2  Kings  xxv.  18. 


414  THE   RETURN. 

all,  perhaps  in  touching  allusion  to  the  original  number  of 
the  Tribes,  marshalled  the  host  in  as  many  divisions. 

If  we  may  trust  later  traditions,  the  setting  out  of  the 
^'  Captivity  "  for  Palestine  was  joyous  in  the  extreme.  An 
escort  of  one  thousand  cavalry  accompanied  them,  for  pro- 
tection against  the  desert  Arabs,  then,  as  now,  given  to 
plunder,  and  they  started  to  the  music  of  tab  rets  and 
flutes.'  The  few  rich  among  them  indulged  in  the  luxury 
of  horses,  of  which  there  were  736,  or  of  mules,  of  which 
there  were  245.  The  aged,  the  children,  and  the  delicate 
women  rode  on  camels,  which  stalked  along,  420  in  num- 
ber, while  6,270  asses  were  partly  used  for  riding,  but 
mainly  carried  baggage.  But  that  there  should  have  been 
only  7,671  beasts  of  carriage  for  50,000  people,  shews  that 
all  but  a  few  marched  on  foot,  and  that  there  was  little  to 
carry,  unless  some  details  have  been  left  unrecorded.  The 
enterprise  thus  undertaken,  though  it  must  have  seemed 
the  merest  trifle  to  the  general  population  of  Babylonia, 
was  an  event  of  supreme  importance  in  the  religious  his- 
tory of  the  world.  It  was,  indeed,  a  wholly  insignificant 
matter  that,  from  all  the  Mesopotamian  provinces,  thin, 
unnoticeable  threads  of  emigration  should  have  trickled 
towards  tlie  capital,  for  the  whole  body  that  ultimately 
set  out  for  Palestine,  including  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, was  only  about  half  as  many  as  are  added  to  the  pop- 
ulation of  London  every  year.  But,  if  this  movement  had 
not  been  carried  oat,  Judaism,  we  may  fairly  suppose, 
would  have  been  lost,  by  the  fusion  of  the  Hebrews  with 
their  kindred  race  on  the  Euphrates,  as  had  happened,  in 
great  measure,  with  the  Ten  Tribes.  The  sacred  books 
would,  in  this  case,  have  been  lost  to  us,  and  Christianity 

'  1  Esd.  V.  2. 


THE   RETURN.  415 

would  never  have  existed.  The  Pilgrim  Caravan,  so  weak 
and  insignificant,  bore  with  it  the  religious  future  of  the 
world. 

The  dreary  journey  across  the  desert  takes  over  four 
months,  at  the  rate  of  such  caravans.'  From  the  Eu- 
j)lirates  to  the  north  of  Syria  the  route  lay  over  a  hard 
gravel  plain,  with  no  mountains,  or  clumps  of  palms,  or 
bubbling  springs,  to  break  tlie  Avearying  monotony,  for  the 
grand  pictures  of  smooth,  made  roads,  and  pools  of  water, 
and  shadowing  trees  on  their  route,  as  sung  by  the  great 
poet  of  the  Eeturn,  were,  after  all,  only  the  beautiful 
dreams  of  an  enthusiastic,  divinely-illumined  patriot. 
The  track  ran  at  first  on  the  west  side  of  the  Euphrates, 
northward  from  Babylon  ;  then  struck  across  the  desert 
towards  Lebanon,  which  may  have  been  skirted  on  the 
south-east,  if  they  made  for  Damascus,  or  approached 
from  the  north,  by  Hamatli  and  Riblah,  which  was  appar- 
ently the  usual  road  in  those  days.  By  a  singular  coinci- 
dence, the  new  Exodus  took  place  in  the  same  month  as 
that  in  which  Israel  had  fled  from  Egypt,  800  or  900  years 
before.' 

The  state  of  Palestine  when  the  exiles  at  last  reached 
it,  after  their  painful  journey,  was  far  from  inspiriting. 
On  the  south,  the  Edomites  had  seized  Hebron  and  all 
Judah,  down  to  the  Philistine  Plain,  while  on  the  north- 
east of  Jerusalem,  between  Jericho  and  the  former  terri- 
tory of  the  northern  kingdom,  they  had  appropriated  a 
large  tract  and  built  a  town,  fitly  called  Akrabbim — *^  the 
scorpions,"  or  ''scourges.''^  That  the  hereditary  enemy 
of  Jerusalem,    who   had    laughed    at    its    downfall,    and 

>  That  the  news  of  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  took  five  months  to  reach  Ezekiel,  shews 
that  the  person  who  brought  it  had  stayed  by  the  way,  at  some  point— perhaps 
Damascus.  *  1  Esd.  v.  6.    Exod.  xii.  18. 


416  THE   RETURII. 

hounded  on  the  Chaldaeans  against  its  popuhition,  should 
hold  great  part  of  tlie  country,  was  almost  intolerable  to 
the  new  comers.*  A  long  and  embittered  strife  to  regain 
the  territory  thus  seized,  marked  the  next  four  hundred 
years.  The  Edomites,  driven  out  of  their  own  country 
by  the  Nabatheans,  clung  eagerly  to  their  new  acquisitions 
in  Palestine,  which  may  have  been  given  them  by  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, in  return  for  their  services  against  the  Jews, 
that  they  might  keep  in  check  the  Hebrews  still  in  the 
land.  A  few  towns  and  a  small  territory  had  to  be  re- 
signed to  the  returned  exiles,  by  command  of  Cyrus ;  but 
with  this  exception,  the  Edomites  held  their  ground,  with 
little  loss,  till  subdued  by  John  Hyrcanus  about  130  years 
before  Christ,  when  they  were  forced  to  submit  to  circum- 
cision, and  had  Jewish  prefects  set  over  them. 

The  centre  of  the  land  was  partly  in  the  hands  of  the 
descendants  of  the  mixed  races  settled  in  it  by  the  Assyrian 
kings,  after  the  destruction  of  Samaria.'^  In  spite,  how- 
ever, of  the  large  deportations  from  the  Northern  King- 
dom to  the  East,  great  numbers  of  Israelites  had  escaped 
captivity,  and  having  intermarried  with  the  new  foreign 
population,  infused  so  strong  a  Jewish  feeling  into  their 
children,  as  to  lead  them  in  the  end  to  claim  that  they, 
as  well  as  the  people  of  Judah,  were  Hebrews,  for  mixed 
marriages  had  always  been  common  in  all  the  tribes  alike, 
and  thus  there  were,  in  reality,  very  few  pure  Jews.  The 
desire  to  unite  with  the  southern  clan  was,  indeed,  of  old 
date;  for  the  later  kings  of  Judah  had  won  back  many  of 
the  survivors  of  the  Northern  Kingdom  to  loyalty  to  Jeru- 
salem. The  bands  who  were  present  from  Asher,  Manas- 
seh,  and  Zebuluu,  at  the  Passover  of  Hc^ekiah;^  the  con- 

»  1  Mace.  iv.  29  ;  v.  3.  *  See  vol.  iv.  p.  290.  '  3  Chron.  xxx.  11. 


THE   RETURN.  417 

tribntions  towards  tlic  repairs  of  the  Temple,  collected, 
under  Josiab,  from  "  Manasseh  and  Epliraim,  and  all  the 
remnant  of  Israel;"  '  and  the  company  of  pilgrims  slain  by 
Ishmael  on  their  way  from  Shechem,  Shiloh,  and  Samaria, 
to  the  ruins  of  the  Holy  City,'  had  strikingly  shewn  the 
depth  of  this  sentiment.  But  the  exclusive  narrowness  of 
the  new  founders  of  Jerusalem  was  destined  soon  to  turn  a 
feeling  thus  friendly  into  the  fiercest  hatred. 

The  stronghold  of  Bethshean — afterwards  known  as 
Scythopolis — was  then  held  by  the  descendants  of  the 
Scythians,  who  had  remained  there  after  the  terrible  inva- 
sion in  the  reign  of  Josiah,  and  thus  formed,  as  it  were, 
the  outpost  of  the  heathen  races,  who,  in  the  main,  peo- 
pled Galilee — ^'  the  heathen-district/^ ' 

Galilee,  however,  we  all  know,  was  recognized  in  the 
days  of  Christ  as  lai-gely  Jewish,  the  jealousy  of  the  South 
never  proposing  to  exclude  its  Hebrew  population  from 
national  privileges,  tliough  so  relentless  in  the  case  of  the 
Samaritans.  It  had,  in  fact,  been  largely  resettled  by 
exiles  returned  from  the  captivity  of  the  Ten  Tribes — a 
''remnant "  still  faitliful  to  Jehovah,  though  the  mass  of 
their  brethren  had  merged  themselves  in  the  heathenism 
of  the  East,  or  preferred  to  remain  beyond  the  Euphrates. 
When  the  Second  Book  of  Esdras  was  written,  it  had  come 
to  be  believed  that  the  great  body  of  the  northern  Jews  had 
left  Assyria  long  before,  for  '^a  further  country  where 
never  mankind  dwelt,''*  but  would  be  brought  back  in  the 
days  of  the  Messiah.     Josephus  fancied  the  Ten   Tribes 

»  2  Chron.  xxxiv.  9.  »  Jer.  xli.  5-8. 

»  Ewald,  vol.  V.  p.  98. 

*  2  Esd.  xiii.  41.  The  date  of  thiP  book  is  aspicned  by  Ililgenfeld  to  b.c.  28-65. 
GfrOrer  and  others,  however,  think  it  belongs  to  the  age  of  Domitian,  a.d.  81-96, 
while  Liicke,  originally  at  least,  fancied  it  written  under  Trajan,  a.u.  OS-ii? 

VOL.  VI.-27 


418  THE    RETURN. 

were  still  beyond  the  Euphrates/  and  since  then,  age 
after  age  has  seen  fresh  speculations  respecting  them. 
Afghanistan,  China,  Nestoria,  the  wilds  of  Western  Amer- 
ica, and  even  the  supposed  Polhynia'  round  the  North 
Pole,  have  been  regarded  as  the  place  of  their  sojourn. 
But  if  only  a  '^  remnant^' of  Judah  could  be  induced  to 
return  after  a  comparatively  brief  exile,  how  much  less 
could  any  return  of  the  whole  Ten  Tribes  be  expected, 
after  a  residence  in  the  East  of  more  than  a  century 
longer  ? 

The  language  of  the  pro2:>hets  is  constantly  quoted  in 
support  of  the  fancy,  so  popular  in  our  day,  that  the  Ten 
Tribes  are  yet  to  return  from  some  unknown  land,  and 
inhabit  Palestine.  When  it  is  remembered,  however,  that 
similar  language,  employed  of  the  exiles  of  Judah  in 
Babylon,  was  fulfilled  by  the  return  of  a  very  small  propor- 
tion of  their  whole  number,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  return 
of  the  Ten  Tribes  which  has  already  taken  place,  is  a  cor- 
responding fulfilment  of  what  had  been  predicted  respect- 
ing the  sons  of  the  Northern  Kingdom.  But  though  the 
Jewish  population  of  Galilee  was  a  vindication  of  prophecy, 
the  relations  of  the  northern  tribes  to  the  southern  were 
henceforth  to  be  changed.  The  very  name  of  Israel  was  to 
be  relinquished.  That  of  Judah  was  alone  to  remain.  In 
earlier  days,  ''Israel^'  had  superseded  the  national  name 
of  Hebrew  ;  but  from  the  period  of  the  Eeturn,  that  of 
**Jew^'  or  ^' Judaean^^  took  the  place  of  both. 

The  new  colony  was  thus  hemmed  in  on  all  sides  by  other 
races.  It  held  only  Jerusalem  and  a  small  district  round 
it,  and  even  for  this  it  had  to  thank  the  favour  of  Cyrus. 

»  Job.,  Ant,  XI.  V.  2. 

*  A  gentleman  gravely  maintained  this  opinion  to  me  when  Captain  Nares'  expedi- 
tion to  the  North  was  being  sent  out,  and  I  have  seen  it  advanced  in  print  since  then. 


THE  RETUKN.  419 

The  list  K)i  towns  named  by  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  as  the 
first  homes  of  their  brethren,  includes  only  Bethlehem  on 
the  south,  wh^le  on  the  nortli  their  territory  did  not  extend 
beyond  the  narrow  limits. of  Benjamin.'  Even  a  generation 
afterwards,  Southern  Judah  had  not  been  won  by  the  He- 
brews.' In  the  time  of  Nehemiah,  however,  nearly  a  hun- 
dred years  later,  they  at  last  got  a  footing  in  Hebron,  to 
which  its  Oanaanite  population  had  once  more  given  the 
old  name  of  Kirjath-Arba,'  and  they  had  pushed  their 
boundaries  some  distance  into  the  Negeb.*  Beersheba,  in- 
deed, on  the  edge  of  the  southern  desert,  then  had,  again,  a 
village  round  its  wells,  and  the  clan  of  Temple-singers  ulti- 
mately established  themselves  in  the  Jordan  valley,  having 
forced  the  Edomites  to  give  them  lands  in  that  district.^ 
On  the  west,  however,  the  Philistines  eagerly  reasserted 
their  independence  ;  speaking  their  own  language  and  wor- 
shipping Dagon,  as  of  old,  in  their  capital,  Ashdod." 

The  Jewish  community,  under  Zerubbabel  and  the  high 
priest  Joshua,  its  civil  and  religious  heads,  with  the  ten 
inferior  leaders  appointed  in  Babylon,  was  organized  more 
fully  very  soon  after  the  Return.  A  body  of  superior  mag- 
istrates, known  as  ''  Sarim  '^  or  ''  Horim/'  was  appointed, 
and  the  ancient  order  of  elders  once  more  installed,  as 
heads  of  limited  districts  and  of  the  smaller  towns.'  Over 
the  whole  stood  the  local  Persian  governor,  whose  headquar- 
ters were,  perhaps,  at  Samaria,  Zerubbabel  being  responsible 
to  him,  and  under  his  authority  in  matters  of  importance/ 
The  houses  of   the  foreign  population,  removed  to  make 

»  Neh.  vii.  26-36.    Ezra  ii.  21,  28,  34.  »  Zech.  vii.  7. 

«  Art.  on  Kirjath-Arba,  in  Diet,  of  Bible.  *  Neh.  xi.  25-35. 

'  See  lists  in  Ezra  and  Nelieiniah.  ^  Neh.  iv.  7;  xiii.  24.    1  Mace.  x.  84. 

">  Ezra  ix.  2  ;  x.  8,  14.    Neh.  iii.  9,  12,  14,  15;  iv.  16. 

*•  Neh.  ii.  7-9.    There  were  at  least  two  Persian  gOTeruora  of  the  lands  west  of  the 
Euphrates  —Syria  in  the  widest  sense. 


420  THE    RETURN. 

room  for  the  new  colony^  may  have  sheltered  a  portion  ol 
the  emigrants,  but  Jerusalem  itself  lay  in  ruins,  and  the 
exiles  must  for  a  time  have  lived  mostly  in  tents.*  How 
many  Jews  were  already  in  Judah  when  their  brethren 
from  the  Euphrates  arrived,  cannot  be  known  ;  but  they 
were  probably  numerous,  since  the  bulk  of  the  peasantry 
seems  to  have  been  left  in  the  country  by  Nebuchadnezzar. 
Besides  these,  fresh  bands  from  every  part  of  the  world 
constantly  arrived  and  strengthened  the  national  move- 
ment. But,  henceforth,  Israel  was  to  be  only  a  vassal  of 
the  heathen.  Its  independence  was  gone  for  ever,  except 
during  the  brief  interval  of  the  Maccabean  revolt.  Per- 
sians, Greeks,  Syrians,  and  Romans,  were  to  rule,  the 
Jewish  people  i^reserving  an  existence  only  under  the 
shadow  of  their  power. 

The  Return  had  been  pre-eminently  a  religious  impulse. 
Weaned  for  ever  from  idolatry,  profoundly  penitent  for 
the  former  backslidings  of  their  nation  in  this  respect,  and 
kindled  into  enthusiasm  for  Jehovah  by  the  glowing  words 
of  the  prophets,  the  colonists  indulged  in  dreams  of  a 
splendid  national  and  religious  future.  The  central  wonder 
of  the  State  was  to  be  the  new  Temple  on  Mount  Zion, 
which,  with  Jerusalem,  Ezekiel  had  painted  as  covering  a 
great  part  of  Palestine.  Its  material  magnificence,  more- 
over, and  that  of  the  capital,  were  to  be  in  keeping  with 
this  transcendent  ideal.  Hence,  the  first  thought  of  the 
exiles   on   reaching   their   fatherland,  was   to   restore    the 

1  Quotations  of  Psalms  were  very  commonly  put  on  the  walls,  and  over  the  doors 
of  houses,  in  Palestine,  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  before  Christ,  as  texts  from 
the  Koran  still  are  on  Mohammedan  houses  everywhere.  Many  such  sacred  inscrip- 
tions of  the  ancient  Hebrews  are  to  be  seen,  even  in  our  own  day,  in  the  Hauran 
and  Northern  Syria,  and  one  has  been  discovered  in  Southern  Palestine.  They  are 
many  centuries  older  than  the  oldest  known  manuscript  of  the  Septuagint.  Pal. 
Explor.  Fund  lleports,  Jan.  1891,  p.  71. 


THE  heturk.  421 

ancient  faith.  As  a  step  towards  this,  contributions  were 
invited  to  begin  the  rebuilding  of  the  Temple  on  its  former 
site,  and  the  response  was  munificent.  The  rich  heads  of 
clans,  or  '^  fathers'  houses, ''  gave  the  great  sum  of  20,000 
darics,  or  about  £12,000,  in  gold,  and  2,000  minae  of  silver, 
or  about  £22,000 ;  '  while  the  common  people  gave  as  much 
in  gold,  and  about  £20,000  in  silver,  besides  sixty-seven 
robes  for  priests.  In  addition  to  this,  Zerubbabel,  appar- 
ently the  richest  of  the  exiles,  added  the  splendid  gift  of 
10,000  golden  darics,  about  £6,000,  50  basons,  and  530  robes 
for  the  priests,  most  of  whom  appear  to  have  been  very 
poor. 

Six  months  had  elapsed  between  the  setting  out  from 
Babylon  and  the  distribution  of  the  new  community  in 
their  future  localities  in  Judah.^  No  sooner  was  this 
effected,  however,  than  a  general  gathering  of  the  people 
was  called  at  Jerusalem,  to  raise  anew  the  long-destroyed 
altar  of  Jehovah  on  the  exact  spot  where  it  had  formerly 
stood.  The  first  wave  of  enthusiasm  Avas  still  at  its  height, 
and  could  not  content  itself  with  even  the  huge  dimensions 
of  the  altar  of  Solomon.  The  golden  future  of  the  race, 
and  the  world-wide  triumph  of  its  faith,  demanded  an  altar 
twice  the  size.'  This  built,  its  inauguration  followed  on 
the  first  day  of  the  seventh  month,  with  the  utmost  splen- 
dour possible  under  the  circumstances.  Numbers  from  the 
various  races  and  districts  of  the  whole  land  were  desirous 
to  make  Jerusalem  their  religious  centre,  and  for  the  time 

'  Taking  the  mina  as  =  100  shekels.  Gesenius.  The  word  translated  "  pound  "  is 
"mina"(Neh.  vii.  70-72).  The  amounts  in  Neheraiah  are  more  detailed  than  in 
Ezra,  but  the  aggregate  is  smaller.  Ezra  makes  the  whole  contributions  61,000 
golden  darics  =  £36,600,  besides  5,000  minse  —  £50,000.  The  priests'  dresses,  how- 
ever, are  given  as  only  100.  Perhaps  the  two  statements  refer  to  distinct  contribu- 
tions at  different  times.    Ezra  ii.  09. 

2  Ezra  iii.  1.  s  Graetz.  ii.  2,  83. 


422  THE   RETURN^. 

befriended  the  colony,'  perhaps  helping  it  by  contributions. 
Their  presence  added  to  the  glory  of  the  day.  Once  more 
the  smoke  of  the  morning  and  evening  sacrifice  arose, 
and  henceforth  each  week-day  and  Sabbath,  with  the  new 
moons  and  other  festivals,  saw  their  appropriate  offerings 
and  sacrifices  duly  presented  or  consumed.  The  day 
chosen  for  the  inaugural  ceremony  was  also  that  of  the 
great  autumnal  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  the  harvest  home  of 
the  land  ;  a  day  famous  as  that  on  which  Solomon  had 
dedicated  his  Temple,  though  it  was  marked,  also,  as  the 
same  on  which  Jeroboam  consecrated  the  rival  sanctuary 
of  Bethel.  The  joyous  feast  was  now  kept  with  glad 
hearts  and  high  hopes.  Loud  ''Amens^'  from  the  people 
answered  the  chants  and  jubilant  noise  of  the  Levites.  It 
was  the  birthday  of  the  restored  nation.  Then  first,  if 
modern  criticism  be  correct,  rose  the  strains  of  the  115th 
Psalm,'*  with  its  lofty  protest  against  idolatry,  and  its  proud 
trust  in  Jehovah  alone  as  the  God  of  Israel. 

But  the  foundation  of  tlie  Temple  was  not  yet  laid.' 
Money,  however,  was  in  the  treasur}^,  and  the  j^roduce  of 
the  land  furnished  materials  for  barter.*  Masons  and 
carpenters  were  hired  at  Jerusalem,  and  Phoenician  sailors 
were  engaged  to  bring  down  in  rafts,  by  sea,  to  Joppa,  the 
cedars  granted  by  Cyrus  for  the  future  sanctuary.  Great 
efforts  were  also  made  by  Zerubbabel  and  the  high  priests, 
zealously  aided  by  priest,  Levite,  and  citizen,  to  clear  the 
site  of  the  old  Temple^  and  prepare  for  laying  the  founda- 
tion of  another.  Yet  it  was  not  till  the  second  month  of 
the  second  year,  B.C.  535,  that  this  imposing  ceremony 
could   take   place.      By   that   time   the   new   stones   were 

1  1  Esd.  V.  50,  amended  by  Geseniu?. 

2  Ewald.     others  think  it  of  a  different  period. 

3  Ezra  iii,  6.  *  Ezra  iii.  7. 


THE    RETURN". 


423 


squared  and  ready ;  the  ruins  sufficiently  out  of  the  way. 
On  the  appointed  day  the  priests  stood  in  order,  in  their 
new  vestments,  and  the  first  stone  of  the  second  Temple 
was  laid,  amidst  the  blasts  of  silver  trumpets,  the  clash  of 
cymbals,  the  music  of  varied  instruments,*  and  the  tri- 
umphant notes  of  Psalms 
specially  composed  for  the 
occasion."  But  sadness  as 
well  as  joy  marked  the  day. 
There  were  aged  men  in  the 
crowd  who  could  compare 
the  past  with  the  present. 
In  their  boyhood  they  had 
seen  the  former  Temple,  be- 
fore its  destruction,  and  tlie 
recollection  overcame  them. 
Loud  weeping  and  sorrow- 
ful cries  mingled  with  the 
sounds  of  rejoicing;  but  the 
bad  omen  was  drowned  in 
still  louder  shouts  of  glad- 
ness from  the  multitude. 

Meanwhile,  a  wide  and 
sincere  interest  was  felt  in 
the  rise  of  Jerusalem  from 
its  ashes.  The  mingled  race 
of  the  Samaritan  territory,  proud  of  its  partly  Jewish 
blood,  retained  tlie  worship  of  Jehovah  as  taught  by  the 
priests  sent  from  Assyria  to  its  forefathers,  a  hundred  and 
fifty   years    before.     But    many   heathen   customs   tainted 

J  1  Esd.  V.  59. 

2  Ixxxvii.,  cvi.,  cvii.,  cxviii.,  cxxxvi.   The  Pilgrim  Psalms,  cxx.-cxxxiv.,  seem  also 
to  date  from  this  time. 


Teraphim,  ok  Houskhold  God9. 


424  THE   RETURN. 

their  practice,  and  they  even  worshipped  idols,  especially 
household  gods.'  Their  priests,  who  were,  doubtless, 
members  of  some  of  the  Ten  Tribes,  had  been  accustomed 
in  the  East  to  see  winged  bulls  at  the  entrances  of  pal- 
aces and  great  mansions,  and  these  had  been  known  as 
*'  spirits,'^  and  ''  guardians  of  the  royal  footsteps/'  and 
'^averters  of  evil."  Winged  lions,  the  emblems  of  Nergal, 
the  god  of  war  and  of  death,  had  also  been  familiar  to  them 
in  similar  positions,  being  supposed  to  protect  the  house  at 
whose  doors  they  were  placed.  An  ancient  fragment  of  an 
inscription  reads  :  ^' Place  the  image  of  the  heroic  warrior 
who  cuts  in  pieces,  inside  the  door.  Place  the  heroic 
warrior  who  cuts  in  pieces,  who  overpowers  the  hand  of 
rebels,  on  the  thresholds  of  the  doors,  right  and  left." 
The  statue  of  Merodach,  ^^the  protector  of  the  host  of 
men,"  and  of  his  all-wise  father.  Ilea,  were  to  be  placed 
inside  the  doorway.  Images  of  '^'^the  divine  protec- 
tors "  were  also  put  beneath  the  threshold,  in  a  specially 
prepared  receptacle,  and  such  images  have  actually  been 
found  in  this  position  in  the  palace  of  Sargon.  They 
were  to  protect  the  royal  footsteps,  in  going  out  or  enter- 
ing, and  to  turn  away  all  evil  from  him. 

Besides  the  images  of  Nergal  and  Merodach,  however, 
there  were  also  images  of  the  special  guardian  gods  and 
goddesses  of  the  person  using  them — his  household  gods  ; 
the  teraphim  of  the  Jews,  which  have  their  counterparts  in 
the  Zendavesta,  and  are  still  in  use  among  the  Arab  tribes. 
These  teraphim,  as  found  in  Assyria,  included  small  figures 
of  Nergal,  Merodach,  and  the  Fire-god,  who,  like  the  others, 
was  a  ''  dispeller  of  evil,"  and  is  represented  with  flowing 
locks  and  beard,  symbolical  of  flames,  and  holding  in  1/is 

»  Ezra  iv.  S. 


THE   RETURN".  425 

hands  the  sacred  cone,  the  emblem  of  the  fire-stick  with 
which  fire  was  then  kindled.  There  were  also  figures  of 
Bel,  with  the  horned  cap,  *'  the  crown  of  dignity,^'  and  of 
the  jackal-headed  god  of  death,  and  of  Hea,  the  Fish-god. 
These  were  hidden,  as  teraphim,  in  the  cavity  under  the 
door,  or  set  up  in  the  house.  Superstitious  usages,  more  or 
less  copied  from  these  Mesoi^otamian  customs,  had  been  in- 
troduced into  the  district  formerly  held  by  the  Ten  Tribes, 
though,  indeed,  reverence  for  teraphim  had  characterized 
the  Hebrews,  as  a  whole,  from  the  earliest  times  till  the 
Captivity,  after  which  they  are  not  mentioned.'  The  more 
tlioughtful  class  of  Samaritans,  however,  wearied  of  so 
rude  and  hybrid  a  creed,  longed  to  join  the  returned 
exiles  and  make  Jerusalem  their  religious  centre,  feeling 
that  Judah  alone  had  preserved  the  ancient  faith  in  its 
purity. 

A  mission  was  therefore  sent  from  the  North,  to  Zerub- 
babel,  Joshua,  and  the  elders,  to  make  overtures  for  co- 
operation in  rebuilding  the  Temple.  The  2)roposal  might 
well  have  been  accepted  under  judicious  couditions,  and 
a  disastrous  quarrel  averted  ;  but  hatred  of  idolatry  was 
now  too  strong  in  the  new  community,  to  tolerate  any  alli- 
ance with  a  people  in  any  measure  defiled  by  heathenism. 
Friendly  relations  would  lead  to  intermarriage  and  famil- 
iarity with  impure  worship,  and  the  tendency  is  always 
greater  to  sink  than  to  rise.  The  Mosaic  law,  moreover, 
was  held  with  a  superstitious  veneration,  which  overlooked 
the  spirit  in  homage  to  the  letter.     The  proposal,  made 

»  Teraphim  are  mentioned  in  Gen.  xxxiv.  19,  34,  35.  JuAg.  xvii.  5  ;  xviii.  14,  17, 
18,  20.  1  Sam.  xv.  23  ;  xix.  13, 16.  2  Kings  xxiii.  24.  Ezek.  xxi.  21  (26).  Hos.  ill.  4. 
Zech  X.  2.  That  teraphim  ("idols'")  are  mentioned  in  this  passage  by  Zechariah, 
with  "  diviners  "  and  the  like,  seems  a  strong  ground  for  thinking  this  portion  of  the 
prophecy  older  than  the  Exile. 


4:26  THE    RETURK. 

apparently  in  good  faith,  was  therefore  declined.  Judah 
would  itself  build  the  Temple,  as  Cyrus  had  permitted, 
without  help. 

The  results  of  this  exclusiveness  were  momentous.  Two 
parties  rose  among  the  Jews  themselves  :  Puritans  and 
Broad  Churchmen.  Old  jealousies  and  hatreds  were  re- 
kindled. Samaria  had  been  despised,  before  the  Exile,  as 
a  heathen  community  ;  it  began  to  be  so  again.  But  it  had 
a  dangerous  weapon  of  attack  in  its  turn.  The  presence  of 
a  descendant  of  David  at  the  head  of  Judah,  gave  a  spe- 
cious colour  to  pretexts  of  possible  political  complications 
in  the  future.  The  Persian  officials  in  Samaria  lent  them- 
selves only  too  readily  to  these  suspicions.  Hired  coun- 
sellors were  sent  to  Ecbatana  and  Susa,  to  spread  them  at 
court,  and  they  succeeded  in  stopping  the  Temple  works 
till  the  death  of  Cyrus,  in  a  distant  war  in  Upper  Asia, 
seven  years  later.*  Nor  were  they  even  then  allowed  to 
recommence.  Cambyses,  the  son  of  Cyrus,  was  too  much 
engaged  in  his  campaigns  to  trouble  himself  about  the 
small  colony  at  Jerusalem,  and,  thus,  through  his  reign 
also,  no  progress  was  made.*  Then  followed  the  reign  of 
an  impostor — the  false  Smerdis  or  Bardes,^  who  claimed  to 
be  the  murdered  brother  of  Cambyses,  but  was  detected  and 
put  to  death  after  a  reign  of  between  seven  and  eight 
months.  It  was  only  in  the  second  year  of  the  next  king, 
Darius  Hystaspis,  that  the  sound  of  work  was  again  heard 
on  Mount  Mori  ah. 

In  these  weary  years,  criminations  and  recriminations  at 
Jerusalem  lowered  the  moral  tone  and  cooled  the  zeal  of 


»  Ezra  iv.  24,  «  b. 

*  Cambyses  had  secreMy  murdered  his  brother  Bardes,  aud  an  impostor,  Gaumata 
the  Magian,  had  seized  the  throne  in  the  name  of  the  dead  prince.  See  Ebers' 
Egyptian  Princess^  where  the  story  of  Bardes  is  charmingly  told,  from  Herodotus. 


THE  RETURN.  427 

the  Jewish  colony.*  But  better  days  returned  with  the 
accession  of  Darius  in  the  year  B.C.  522,  fourteen  years 
after  the  Return.  Just  and  honourable,  he  became  another 
Cyrus  to  them,  and  the  second  founder  of  the  new  State. 

1  Ewald  thinks  the  Ahasuerus  and  Artaxerxes  in  Ezra  iv.  G,  7,  are  Cambyses  and 
the  false  Smerdis  respectively.  But  Schrader  and  Keil  suppose  that  verses  6  to  24 
are  in  their  wrong  place,  by  the  error  of  some  scribe,  and  refer  them  to  the  reign  of 
Xerxes,  b.c.  486-465,  an-l  Artaxerxes  of  the  Long  Hand,  b.c.  465-425.  The  names  as 
given  in  Ezra  seem  to  support  this.  It  is  now  ihe  generally  accepted  opinion.  Se® 
Riehm  and  the  CcUwer  HandivorterbucJi. 


CHAPTER  XVIIL 

HAGGAI    AND    ZEOHARIAH. 

The  reign  of  Darius  was  marked  by  the  appearance  of 
two  prophets — Haggai  and  Zechariah — who,  wearied  by 
the  apathy  of  their  brethren,  took  advantage  of  the  acces- 
sion of  a  prince  so  friendly  to  the  nation,  to  stimulate  them 
to  a  resumption  of  the  long-delayed  work  of  rebuilding  the 
Temple.  Of  these  two,  Haggai  was  much  the  older  ;  for 
he  was  either  one  of  the  captives  led  from  Jerusalem  by 
Nebuchadnezzar,  and  thus  had  seen  the  old  Temple  in  its 
glory,  or,  at  latest,  had  been  born  in  Babylon  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Exile.'  During  the  Captivity  he  had,  nodoubt, 
helped  forward  the  great  religious  revival  to  which  the 
Return  was  due,  though  no  record  of  his  preaching  in 
those  dark  years  remains.  The  second,  Zechariah,  a  much 
younger  man,'^  was  the  son  or  grandson  of  Iddo,^  the  head 
of  one  of  the  priestly  houses  represented  in  the  Jerusalem 
colony.  Like  Ezekiel,  he  was  of  priestly  extraction  ;  but 
he  belonged,  besides,  to  a  family  of  prophets,  for  he  inher- 
ited his  dignity,  as  one  of  the  order,  from  his  father  or 
grandfather.  Born  in  a  generation  in  which  the  Apoca- 
lyptic visions  of  Ezekiel  had  introduced  a  new  form  of 
prophetic  utterance,  his  prophecies  are  marked  by  a  sim- 
ilar characteristic.     The  influence  of  his  Babylonian  life, 

J  Hag.  ii.  3.    Ewald  thinks  he  had  seen  the  first  Temple.  2  Zech.  ii.  4. 

3  In  Ezra  v.  1  ;  vi.  14,  he  is  called  the  son  of  Iddo  ;  in  Zech.  i.  1-7,  the  grandson 


HAGGAI    AND   ZECHARIAH.  429 

moreover,  is  seen  in  his  imagery  and  allusions.  Thus  he 
uses  the  regnal  years  of  the  Great  King  for  his  dates/  and, 
among  otlier  Eastern  colourings,  introduces  in  his  third 
vision  the  Persian  custom  of  clothing  a  person  accused,  in 
soiled  garments,  to  be  exchanged  for  white  when  he  is 
acquitted.  It  has,  however,  been  very  widely  held,  by 
calm  and  competent  critics,  that,  as  in  some,  other  recog- 
nized cases,  portions  written  by  other  prophets  of  a  differ- 
ent period,  have  been  added,  perhaps  through  inadvertence, 
to  the  chapters  actually  to  be  ascribed  to  Zechariah.  To 
the  end  of  the  eighth  chapter,  it  is  held,  we  have  the  words 
of  the  prophet  of  the  Return,  while  chapters  nine  to  eleven 
are  assigned  to  an  unknown  author,  contemporary  with  the 
prophet  Hosea,  during  the  last  period  of  the  Northern 
Kingdom,  and  chapters  twelve  to  fourteen  are  regarded  as 
dating  from  the  years  just  before  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem. The  mention  of  terajDhim  and  diviners  in  the  mid- 
dle portion  appears,  as  has  been  noticed,  to  support  the 
view  that  it  dates  from  before  the  fall  of  Samaria,  and 
some  other  expressions  seem  most  easily  referred  to  that 
period,  but  scholars  are  divided  on  the  point,  and  some 
still  hold  that  the  book  was  entirely  written  by  the  prophet 
whose  name  it  bears. 

It  was  in  the  second  year  of  Darius  Hystaspis,  on  the 
first  day  of  the  sixth  month,  September  or  October,  B.C. 
521,  that  Haggai  first  presented  himself  before  Zerubbabel 
and  Joshua,  to  stir  both  them  and  the  people  to  renewed 
efforts  towards  the  rebuilding  of  the  Temple.  The  exag- 
gerated hopes  of  the  first  period  of  the  Return  had  died 
away.  Instead  of  the  glorious  times  they  had  expected, 
only  trouble  and   disappointment  had  befallen  them.     It 

»  Zcch.  i.  7-11. 


430  HAGGAI   AND   ZECHARIAH. 

seemed  as  if  they  had  been  deceived  by  the  prophets. 
Their  zeal  died  away  under  such  discouragement.  After 
fifteen  years,  the  altar  on  Mount  Moriah,  and  the  laying  of 
the  foundation  stone,  were  the  only  results  of  their  lofty 
anticipations  that  a  Temple  grander  than  that  of  Solomon 
would  speedily  rise  before  them.  But  if  they  had  been  dis- 
appointed in  this  direction,  their  material  circumstances 
had  improved.  Debarred  from  restoring  the  national 
sanctuary,  but  free  in  other  respects,  they  had  devoted 
themselves  to  worldly  affairs.  Fine  houses,  owned  by  the 
richer  colonists,  had  risen  among  the  ruins  of  Jerusa- 
lem, and  this  prosperity  had  still  further  lowered  their  re- 
ligious tone.  Warnings  of  the  displeasure  of  God  at  their 
apathy  and  spiritual  decline  were  not,  however,  wanting ; 
for  droughts  had  visited  the  land,  the  heavens  had  been 
'^  stayed  from  dew,"  and  the  earth  '*  from  her  fruit. '* 
But  they  still  urged  that  the  time  for  rebuilding  the 
House  of  God  had  not  yet  come  ;  *  fresh  permission, 
they  maintained,  being  required  from  the  Great  King. 
This  hypocritical  plea  Haggai  boldly  met  by  a  stern 
attack  on  their  insincerity. 

*'I.  4.  Is  it  time  for  you,  yourselves,— cried  he,^ — to  live  in  your 
houses,  panelled  (with  costly  woods),  while  this  house — (the  House  of 
God) — lies  waste?  5.  Now,  therefore,  thus  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts: 
Consider  your  ways  !  6.  Ye  have  sown  much,  and  brought  in  little. 
Ye  eat,  but  it  does  not  satisfy  you ;  ye  drink,  but  it  does  not  quench 
your  thirst ;  ye  clothe  yourselves,  but  it  does  not  serve  to  warm  you ; 
and  he  that  earns,  finds  his  gain  vanish  as  if  put  into  a  bag  with  holes. 
7.  Thus  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  Consider  your  ways  !  8.  Go  up  to  the 
hill-country,  and  bring  timber  and  build  My  house,  and  I  will  have 
pleasure  in  it,  and  I  will  be  honoured,  says  Jehovah.  9.  Ye  looked  for 
much  (from  your  fields),  and  it  came  to  little,  and  when  ye  brought  it 
home  I  blew  on  it.     Why?  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts.     'Because  of  My 

»  Hae.  i.  2.  «  Hag.  i.  4,  0. 


HAGGAI   AND    ZECHARTAH.  431 

House  which  lies  waste,  while  ye,  every  one,  run  to  (build)  his  own 
house.  10.  For  this,*  the  heaven  has  kept  back  from  yielding  dew, 
and  the  earth  from  yielding  fruit,  11.  and  I  have  called  up  a  drought 
on  land  and  hill,  and  on  the  corn,  and  new  wine,  and  oil,  and  on  all 
that  the  ground  yields,  and  on  men  and  cattle,  and  all  the  labour  of 
your  hands.'  '* 

Haggai  took  it  for  granted  that  no  new  permission  to 
build  the  Temple  was  needed,  since  the  one  given  by  Cyrus 
had  never  been  withdrawn,  though  the  work  had  been  for- 
bidden. Fortunately,  the  people  and  their  leading  men 
accepted  this  view,  and  resolved  to  act  on  the  counsel  of 
Haggai,  to  which  they  listened  with  reverent  awe.  In 
about  three  weeks  the  sound  of  labour  once  more  rose  from 
the  Temple  hill.' 

Four  weeks  later,  the  venerable  prophet  again  presented 
himself  before  the  people  and  their  leaders.  The  walls  of 
the  Temple  were  now  being  rapidly  built ;  but  as  they 
rose,  it  was  evident  that  the  new  building  would  be  far 
less  magnificent  than  the  old.  Most  of  the  citizens  were 
poor,  and  the  few  rich  were,  in  too  many  cases,  indifferent. 
But  if  the  gloom  of  some,  and  the  coldness  of  others,  were 
calculated  to  dispirit  the  workers,  Haggai,  cheerful  and 
confident,  was  ready  to  encourage  them  by  the  promise  of 
a  better  time,  when  their  brethren  in  other  lands,  and  even 
the  heathen,  would  interest  themselves  in  the  great  under- 
taking, and  cause  the  glory  of  this  second  Temple  to  be 
greater  than  that  of  the  first. 

"II.  3.  Who  is  left  among  you  that  saw  this  House  in  its  former 
glory?  And  how  see  ye  it  now?  does  it  not  appear  as  nothing  in  your 
eyes  in  comparison? 

"4.  Yet,  be  of  good  heart,  0  Zerubbabel,  says  Jehovah;  be  of  good 
heart,  0  Joshua,  the  high  i)riest,  son  of  Josedech,  and  be  of  good  heart 

»  Hae.  i.  10,  11 ;  ii.  3,  4.  «  Hag.  i.  14, 15. 


432  HAGGAI   AND    ZECHARTAH. 

all  ye  people  of  the  land,  says  Jehovah,  and  work !  For  I  am  with  you, 
says  Jehovah  of  Hosts.  5.  The  covenant  that  I  made  with  you  when 
ye  came  out  of  Egypt, ^  stands  firm,  and  My  Spirit  remains  in  your 
midst;  fear  ye  not!  C.  For  thus  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts:  it  will  be 
only  a  little  while  till  I  shake  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  the  sea 
and  the  dry  land,  7.  and  till  I  shake  all  nations,  and  the  wealth  of  all 
will  come  hither,  and  I  will  fill  this  House  with  splendour,  says  Jeho- 
vah of  Hosts.  8.  The  silver  is  mine,  and  the  gold  is  mine,  says  Jeho- 
vah of  Hosts.  9.  The  glory  of  this  house  will  be  greater  tlian  that  of 
the  former,  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  and  in  this  place  will  I  give  peace, 
says  Jehovah  of  Hosts." 

Three  months  after  the  community  had.  recommenced 
work  on  the  Temple,  another  prophetic  message  came, 
through  Haggai,  to  the  people.  Their  faint-heartedness 
was  gone,  and  they  toiled  with  zeal  and  energy.  It  was 
now  desirable  to  confirm  their  fidelity  by  an  assurance 
that,  if  it  continued,  the  blessings  of  the  fields,  which 
had  been  withheld  from  them,  would  be  restored.  The 
drought  and  trials  of  the  past  had  been  a  punishment  for 
their  neglect  of  the  House  of  God,  and  would  now  be  re- 
moved. It  was  about  the  end  of  November,  when  the  sow- 
ing of  winter  grain  Avas  over,  and  tlie  early  rains  had  begun  ; 
in  themselves  an  earnest  of  the  Divine  blessing. 

*'  II.  11.  Thus  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts — said  Haggai — Ask  now  the 
priests  for  instruction  in  the  Law,  saying:  12.  "If  a  man  carry  holy 
flesh  of  offerings  ^  in  the  skirt  of  his  garment,  and  touch  bread,  or 
cooked  food,'  or  wine,  or  oil,  or  any  kind  of  food,  will  what  it  touches 
become  holy?"    And  the  priests  answered,  '  No.'  * 

"13.  Then  Haggai  said,  If  a  person  made  unclean  by  touching  a 
dead  body  touch  any  of  these  (things  just  named),  shall  what  he 
touches  become  unclean  ?    And  the  priests  said:  'It  docs  become  un- 

J  Hag.  ii.  5-13.  «  Jer.  xi.  15. 

3  Gen.  XXV.  29,  or  2  Kings  iv.  38. 

*  Lev.  vi.  20  says  that  the  skirt  in  which  consecrated  flesh  was  carried  was  thereby, 
itseir,  "holy,"  but  it  could  not  impart  holiness  by  what  was  touched  by  it.  The 
priests,  therefore,  were  right  in  their  answer. 


HAGGAI    AND    ZECHARIAH.  433 

clean.''  14.  Then  answered  Haggai,'^  Thus  is  this  people  and  this 
nation  before  Me,  says  Jehovah,  and  thus  is  all  the  work  of  their 
hands. ^  And  that  which  they  offer  there  is  unclean.  15.  And,  now, 
turn  your  thoughts  from  this  day  backward,  to  the  time  before  stone 
was  laid  on  stone  in  the  Temple  of  Jehovah.  IG.  Before  that,  when  a 
man  came  to  a  heap  of  (corn  which  he  expected  to  be)  twenty  meas- 
ures, there  were  only  ten ;  and  when  he  came  to  the  vat  of  the  wine- 
press, (expecting)  to  draw  off  fifty  measures  of  wine,  there  were  only 
twenty.  17.  I  smote  you  with  blight,  mildew,  and  hail,  in  all  the 
work  of  your  hands,  yet  ye  turned  not  to  Me,  says  Jehovah!  18.  But, 
now,  turn  back  your  thoughts  from  this  day  to  the  twenty-fourth  of 
the  ninth  month,  the  day  on  which  the  foundation  of  the  Temple  of 
Jehovah  was  laid — think  on  the  matter.  19.  Was  there  seed  in  the 
barn  before  that  day?  Were  not  vine  and  fig-tree  and  pomegranate 
and  olive  alike  unfruitful?  But  from  this  day,  when  the  building  is 
recommenced,  I  will  bless  you ! " 

On  tlie  same  day  Haggai  received  another  message  to 
deliver  to  Zerubbabel.     It  ran  thus  : 

*'II.  21.  1  (Jehovah)  will  shake  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  22. 
and  I  will  overturn  the  throne  of  kingdoms,  and  destroy  the  strength 
of  the  kingdoms  of  the  heathen,  and  destroy  the  chariots  and  those 
who  ride  in  them,  and  (overwhelm)  the  horses  and  their  riders,  every 
one  by  the  sword  of  the  other.  23.  In  that  day,  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts, 
I  will  take  thee,  O  Zerubbabel,  my  servant,  the  son  of  Shealtiel,  says 
Jehovah,  and  make  thee  like  a  signet  ring  (on  My  hand) ;  *  for  I  have 
chosen  thee,  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts."  * 

»  Num.  xix.  22.  a  Hag:,  ii.  14-23. 

3  The  raising  an  altar  on  their  return  was  a  "  holy  "  act,  but  their  delay  in  building 
the  Temple  was  wrong,  and  the  good  could  not  make  the  wrong  change  its  character 
any  more  than  the  "  holy  flesh  "  could  communicate  its  goodness  to  ihe  "'  common  " 
cr  unconsecrated  food.  Moreover,  this  ein  took  away  the  good  of  their  former  act— 
the  raising  the  altar— as  the  touch  of  a  person  defiled  by  a  dead  l)ody  polluted  that 
with  which  it  came  into  contact.  They  had  lost  their  "  cleanness  "  before  God,  and 
might  justly  be  punished  by  the  drought,  etc.  But  now  that  they  liad  recommenced 
the  Temple,  this  state  of  things  no  longer  existed,  and  God  was  free  once  more  to 
bless  the  land,  which  had  suffered  for  their  sake. 

*  The  signet  ring  ia  never  laid  aside  by  its  wearer,  but  is  especially  valued  by  him. 
Gen.  xxxviii.  18. 

s  It  is  possible  that  the  Hebrew  prince  may  have  asked  Haggai  as  to  his  safety  ia 
the  midst  of  the  political  troubles  of  the  empire  and  that  this  is  the  answer. 

VOL  VI.-«8 


434  HAGGAI    AND    ZECHARIAH. 

The  discourses  of  Haggai  had  been  delivered  between 
the  sixth  and  ninth  months  of  the  second  year  of  Darius — 
September  to  November,  B.C.  521 — and,  as  we  have  seen, 
had  made  a  profound  impression.  This  was  deepened  by 
the  appearance  of  his  young  contemporary,  Zechariah,  in 
the  month  of  October — the  eighth  month  * — while  the 
earlier  words  of  his  aged  fellow-prophet  were  still  fresh 
in  all  minds,  and  his  later  ones  had  not  yet  been  spoken. 
Three  months  later, '^  in  January,  B.C.  520,  he  came  before 
the  people  again ;  but  an  interval  of  twenty-two  months 
elapsed  before  his  next  address.^ 

In  the  true  prophetic  spirit,  Zechariah,  like  Haggai, 
dwells  entirely  on  the  moral  hindrances  to  the  rebuilding 
of  the  Temple.  The  plots  of  enemies  do  not  trouble  him. 
Fifteen  years  had  passed  since  the  Eeturn,  and  the  walls 
of  the  sanctuary  were  not  yet  raised,  while  the  city  itself 
was  being  laboriously,  and  in  some  cases  splendidly, 
restored.  Haggai,  a  month  before,  had  striven  to  rouse 
his  contemporaries,  by  predicting  that,  notwithstanding 
appearances,  the  glory  of  the  second  House  would  be  even 
greater  than  that  of  the  first,*  but  his  words  had  had  little 
effect.  Zechariah,  therefore,  warns  them  to  take  a  lesson 
from  the  fate  of  their  fathers.  Their  disobedience  to  the 
prophets  had  been  their  ruin  ;  let  no  such  result  follow 
now  from  a  similar  cause.  The  drought  and  the  oppo- 
sition from  without,  shewed  that  God  was  displeased  ;  let 
them  seek  to  regain  His  favour.     He  thus  begins  : 

*'I.  2.  Jehovah  ^  has  been  very  wroth  with  your  fathers,  3.  there- 
fore say  unto  these,  (their  sons);  thus  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts:  '  Turn  ye 
to  Me,  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  and  I  will  turn  to  you,  says  Jehovah  of 

»  Zech.  i.  1.  5  Zech.  i.  7.  »  Zech.  vii.  1. 

«  Hag.  ii.  9.  6  Zech.  i.  2,  3. 


HAGGAI   A:NrD   ZECHARIAH.  435 

Hosts.'  4.  Be  not  like  your  fathers,'  to  whom  the  prophets  of  former 
days  cried,  saying,  '  Thus  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  Turn  ye  now  from 
your  evil  ways  and  from  your  evil  doings.'  But  they  did  not  hear  or 
give  heed  to  Me,  says  Jehovah.  5.  Your  fathers — where  are  they  ? 
And  the  prophets,  did  (even  they)  live  for  ever  ?  But  (though  all 
these,  alike,  are  dead),  6.  My  words  and  My  commands'which  I  com- 
missioned My  servants  the  prophets  (to  declare),  have  they  not  over- 
taken your  fathers,  so  that  they  turned  and  said,  '  As  Jehovah  of  Hosts 
decreed  to  do  to  us,  according  to  our  ways  and  doings,  so  has  He 
dealt  with  us'?" 

Three  months  later  Zechariah  announced  a  series  of 
prophetic  night-visions  with  which  he  had  been  favoured, 
thus  repeating  the  peculiar  characteristic  of  Ezekiel,  which 
was,  hereafter,  to  create  so  widely  extended  a  school  of 
Jewish  Apocalyptic  literature.  The  whole  succession  of 
visions,  seven  in  number,  came,  we  are  told,  in  the  same 
night,  and  all  alike  are  designed  to  confirm  the  predic- 
tion of  Haggai,  uttered  two  months  before,  that  Jehovah 
would  assuredly  bless  and  honour  His  people,  if  they  were 
faithful  to  Him. 

In  the  first  vision,''  a  rider  on  a  red  horse,  followed  by 
others  on  red,  speckled,  and  white  horses,  appeared  to  the 
prophet  among  a  clump  of  myrtles,^  growing  in  a  hollow, 
and  they  were  explained  to  be  those  sent  out  by  Jehovah 
through  the  earth,  which  they  had  found  still  and  peace- 
ful, with  no  signs,  anywhere,  of  that  '^^ shaking  of  the  na- 
tions, ^^  and  overthrow  of  the  enemies  of  Israel,  predicted 
by  Ilaggai.*  On  hearing  this,  an  angel,  who  stood  by, 
breaks  out  into  a  supplication  to  God  to  have  pity  on 
Jerusalem  and  the  cities  of   Judah,  which  had  now  lain 


'  Zech.  i.  4-6.  «  Zech.  i.  8-ir. 

'  Except  in  Zechariah,  the  myrtle  is  mentioned  only  in  Isa.  xll.  10  ;  Iv.  13.    It 
grows  all  over  Western  Asia.    I  have  seen  it  in  many  places  in  Palestine  and  Syria. 
<  Hag.  ii.  7. 


436  HAGGAI    AND    ZECHARIAH. 

waste  seventy  years.  Forthwith  Jehovah  answers  in 
^^good  and  comfortable  words/Mvhich  the  angel  embodies 
in  a  command  that  Zechariah  should  cry  aloud  to  His 
people,  as  follows : 

"  I.  14.  Thus  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts:'  I  am  full  of  loving  zeal  for 
Jerusalem  and  Zion,  15.  but  of  indignation  at  the  heathen  dwelling 
in  proud  security;  for  when  I  was  only  a  little  angry  with  Israel,  they 
added  to  his  affliction.  16.  Therefore,  thus  says  Jehovah:  I  have  re- 
turned to  Jerusalem  with  mercies;  My  House  shall  be  rebuilt  in  her, 
saith  Jehovah  of  Hosts;  and  the  (measuring)  line  shall  be  stretched 
out  over  (the  soil  of)  Jerusalem.  17.  Cry,  moreover,  and  say,  Thus 
says  Jehovah  of  Hosts :  My  cities  will  again  overflow  with  prosperity, 
and  Jehovah  will  again  comfort  Zion  and  choose  Jerusalem." 

It  was  thus  foreshadowed  that  God  would  visit  Avith  His 
anger,  the  heathen,  now  so  secure,  and  renew  His  favour 
to  Judah.  The  second  vision  illustrated  His  deliverance 
of  Israel  in  the  past,  and  his  overthrow  of  their  foes  in  the 
future.  Four  horns,  the  symbols  of  power,  rose  before  the 
prophet,  the  emblems  of  the  kingdoms  that  had  "  scattered 
Judah,  Israel,  and  Jerusalem,'^ '  but  forthwith  appeared 
also  four  craftsmen,  to  the  terror  of  the  horns,  to  cast  them 
down. 

Next  was  seen  a  man  with  a  measuring  line  in  his  hand,' 
as  if  to  measure  the  circuit  of  Jerusalem.  He  refrains 
from  doing  so,  however,  because  the  new  city  would  be  un- 
walled,  like  the  open  country,  to  contain  the  multitude  of 
its  population  and  cattle  ;  Jehovah  Himself  serving  at  once 
as  its  glory  and  its  defence,  in  the  absence  of  bulwarks  and 
fortifications."  With  such  prospects  before  Judah,  it  was 
incomprehensible  to  the  prophet  that  so  many  of  the  exiles 

>  Zech.  i.  14-17.  ''  Zech.  I.  18-21.  3  Zech.  ii.  1-5. 

*  Jerusalem,  though  it  had  walls,  in  the  end  extended  itself  widely  on  every  side 
over  the  neighbouring  hills.    Wright's  Zechariah,  p.  36. 


HAGGAI   AND    ZECHARIAH.  437 

should  still  remain  in  Babylonia.  Hence,  in  the  fulness  of 
his  joy,  he  lovingly  invites  them  to  seek  a  place  in  the 
favoured  city  of  their  fathers. 

"II.  6.  Hark  yc,'  hark,  and  flee  from  the  land  of  the  North,  says 
Jehovah,  for  I  will  spread  forth  your  dwellings  to  the  four  winds  of 
heaven.'^  7.  0  Zion,  deliver  thyself  ;  thou  that  dwellest  with  the 
daughter  of  Babylon.  8.  For  thus  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts  :  He  has 
sent  me  (His  Angel) '  to  the  nations  who  spoiled  you,  to  win  glory  (for 
you,  at  their  cost),  for  he  who  touches  you  touches  the  apple  of  His 
eye.  9.  For,  lo,  I  *  will  shake  my  hand  over  them,  and  they  will  be  a 
prey  to  those  who  served  them,  and  ye  shall  know  that  Jehovah  of 
Hosts  has  sent  rae.  10.  Sing  and  rejoice,  0  daughter  of  Zion  ;  for,  lo, 
I  am  coming,  and  I  will  dwell  in  the  midst  of  thee,  says  Jehovah. 

11.  And  many  nations  will  join  themselves  to  Jehovah  in  that  day, 
and  will  be  for  a  people  to  Me,  and  I  will  dwell  in  the  midst  of  thee, 
and  thou  shalt  know  that  Jehovah  of   Hosts  has  sent  me  to   thee. 

12.  And  Jehovah  will  take  possession  of  Judah,  (as)  His  portion  in  the 
Holy  Land,  and  will  choose  Jerusalem  again.  13.  Be  silent,  all  flesh, 
before  Jehovah,  for  He  has  raised  himself  up  from  (His  repose  in)  His 
holy  dwelling  (in  the  heavens,  to  effect  this)." 

The  more  serious  among  the  citizens  of  Judah,  appar- 
ently feared  that  their  guilt  was  too  great  for  the  Almighty 
to  pardon,  and  that  this  was  the  cause  of  their  misadven- 
tures since  tlieir  return.  To  remove  such  a  thought,  a 
fourth  vision  was  vouchsafed  to  the  prophet.  Joshua,  the 
high  priest,^  as  the  representative  of  the  whole  people,  is 
seen  standing,  in  soiled  robes,  like  a  criminal,  before  the 
Angel  of  Jehovah,  with  '^  the  adversary ''  *  at  his  right 
hand,  to  accuse  him.  The  accusation,  however,  not  only 
fails  ;  its  author  is  rebuked  for  making  it,  by  Jehovah, 
'^  who  delights  in  Jerusalem. '*     '^  Is  not  this  (man  or  com- 

*  Zech..  ii.  6-13.  '  The  future  vast  extension  of  Jerusalem  is  referred  to. 

»  Zech.  ii.  3.  ••  The  Angel.  *  Zech.  iii.  1-10. 

«  The  word  is  "  tlie  Satan  "  or  Adversary,  and  thus  it  is  not  a  proper  name,  but  aa 
official  title. 


438  HAGGAI   AI^TD   ZECHARIAH. 

munity)/'  it  is  asked,  ^'a  brand  plucked  from  the  fire  (of 
exile)  ? "  The  soiled  robes  are  then  taken  off,  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  Angel,  and  robes  of  honour  pat  on,  a  pure 
priestly  turban  being  set,  besides,  on  Joshua's  head ;  the 
Angel,  moreover,  promises  him,  in  the  name  of  Jehovah, 
that  if  he  walked  in  God's  ways  and  was  zealous  for  His 
law,  he  would  remain  the  judge  of  His  House  and  the 
guardian  of  His  courts,  and  would  go  out  and  in  among 
the  Angels  standing  there.  He  and  the  other  dignitaries 
of  the  priesthood  who  sit  with  him,  men  of  rank  and  note, 
are  to  take  heed  to  what  they  have  heard  ;  for  Jehovah  is 
about  to  bring  forth  His  Servant,  the  Sprout,  or  Branch  (of 
David) — that  is,  the  Heaven-sent,  anointed.  Head  of  the 
nation.  Nor  is  there  any  fear  of  God  neglecting  Zion,  for 
His  Providence  watches  its  interests  like  so  many  eyes  ; 
nay,  a  stone  seen  in  the  vision,  as  an  emblem  of  the  newly 
founded  Theocracy,  has  seven  eyes  upon  it,  and  was  being 
prepared  by  the  hand  of  God  Himself,  perhaps  for  the  top- 
stone  of  the  New  Temple,  in  the  glorious  days  coming. 
The  whole  is,  of  course,  only  a  vision,  but  the  lesson  was 
clear.  The  "  Branch,"  who  was  to  bring  triumph  to  Israel, 
would  assuredly  come,  and  the  punishment  for  the  past 
iniquity  of  the  land  would  be  removed  in  one  day,  when  He 
appeared.  A  blissful  time  would  then  begin,  when  each 
would  call  his  neighbour  to  sit  under  his  vine  and  fig-tree, 
in  sweet  and  peaceful  security. 

A  new  vision  followed  at  a  short  interval,  this  time 
referring  to  Zerubbabel,  as  the  one  before  had  referred 
to  Joshua,  the  high  priest.  There  appeared  a  seven- 
branched  lamp,*  like  that  in  the  Mosaic  Tabernacle,  with 
two  olive-trees  beside  it ;  the  symbol,  it  may  be,  of  the 

>  Zech.  iv.  15k 


HAGGAI   AND   ZECHARIAH.  439 

glorious  light  which  was  hereafter'  to  shine  forth  from  the 
Temple,  or,  perhaps,  from  the  splendour  streaming  from 
the  Temple  itself."  The  lesson  it  was  to  teach  was  con- 
veyed by  the  attendant  Angel. 

•'  IV.  6.  This  '  is  the  word  of  Jehovah  to  Zerubbabel:  *  Not  by  might 
nor  by  power,  but  by  My  Spirit  ! '  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts.  7.  Who 
art  thou,  0  great  mountain  (of  difficulties),  before  Zerubbabel  ?  Be- 
come a  plain  :  for  He — Jehovah — will  bring  forth  the  top-stone  (of  the 
New  Temple),  amidst  joyful  cries  of  '  Grace,  grace  (from  God),  be  on 
it.' " 

He  had  laid  its  foundation,  and  He  would  finish  it. 
No  one  had  a  right  to  despise  the  past  day  of  small  things, 
for  the  seven  mystic  eyes,  the  visionary  emblems  of  God's 
watchful  providence  over  all  the  earth,  had  already  seen 
with  joy  the  plummet  in  the  hand  of  Zerubbabel,  when  the 
foundation  stone  was  laid  in  the  presence  of  Joshua,*  and 
this  was  an  earnest  that  what  God  had  begun.  He  would 
complete. 

The  Temjile  thus  to  be  gloriously  finished  would  be 
marked  by  the  reign  of  holiness.  A  flying  scroll  of  a 
book,  of  huge  size,  appeared — thirty  feet  long  and  fifteen 
feet  broad — the  portentous  embodiment  of  the  curse  of  the 
Almighty  on  all  sinners  in  the  land.  The  false  swearer 
and  the  thief  would  be  driven  away  before  the  breath  of 
the  Divine  wrath.'  Nor  was  this  all ;  wickedness  of  every 
kind  would  be  purged  from  the  bounds  now  sanctified  by 
the  presence  of  Jehovah  in  His  restored  Temple.     A  huge 

»  Keil. 

2  Ewald,  Steiner,  and  Eichhom  think  the  lamp  a  symbol  of  the  New  Temple, 
which  was  to  spring  from  the  efforts  of  Joshua  and  Zerubbabel,  of  whom  the  two 
olive-trees  were  emblems.  Keil  more  justly  considers  these  the  representatives  of 
the  spiritual  agencies  by  which  God  brings  His  heavenly  influence  to  bear  on  the 
Church. 

3  Zech.  iv.  6-7.  *  Zech.  iii  9.  .»  Zech.  v.  1-1 


440  HAGGAI   AKD    ZECHARIAH, 

vessel  was  also  seen  in  the  vision,*  the  emblem  of  the  fate 
awaiting  all  evil  doers,  for  on  a  great  round  disk  of  lead 
which  had  covered  its  mouth  being  lifted,  Wickedness, 
personified  as  a  woman,  was  seen  sitting  within,  as  in  a 
prison,  or  like  a  wild  beast  in  its  cage.  This  vessel,  two 
winged  female  forms  presently  lifted  from  the  ground,  and 
bore  away  to  Babylonia,  the  symbol,  in  those  days,  of  the 
land  of  uncleanness  and  evil,  and  thus  Judah  was  purged 
from  its  presence.' 

That  such  modes  of  presenting  spiritual  lessons  should 
have  ever  been  popular  and  intelligible,  marks  the  im- 
mense difference  between  the  East  and  the  West.  Oriental 
fancy  delights  in  mysterious  imagery  and  parable,  as  vehi- 
cles of  religious  truth.  The  later  Hebrew  literature,  espe- 
cially, shews  these  characteristics,  but  isolated  examples  of 
them  occur  earlier,  as  in  the  vision  of  Micaiah,^  })ortions  of 
the  introduction  to  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  and  the  Book 
of  Job  as  a  whole.  In  the  age  before  Christ,  it  had  become 
the  favourite  style  of  composition,  as  is  seen  in  the  Jewish 
Sibylline  verses,  the  Book  of  Henoch,  the  Book  of  Jubilees, 
the  Assumption  of  Isaiah,  and  the  Assumption  of  Moses, 
and  it  has  been  followed,  to  a  very  large  extent,  by  the 
Rabbis,  in  later  ages.  To  the  Western  mind,  however, 
such  modes  of  writing  must  always  remain  in  great  part 
unintelligible ;  and,  indeed,  the  visions  of  the  prophets, 
from  Ezekiel  downwards,  have  been  frankly  proclaimed  by 
the  Rabbis  themselves  as  beyond  full  human  comprehen- 
sion. It  is  vain  therefore  to  attempt  to  explain  the  obscure 
references  of  those  of  Zechariah. 

This  applies  in  its  fullest  sense  to  the  seventh  and  last 

>  An  "  Ephah  "  =  the  largest  Hebrew  dry  measure.     Keil,  Zacharja,  p.  573. 
«  Zech.  V.  5-11.  3  1  Kings  xxii.  19,  ft. 


HAGGAI   AND   ZECHARIAH.  441 

vision'  of  that  eventful  niglit.  Four  chariots — whether  of 
war  or  peace  is  not  stated — were  seen  issuing  from  between 
two  mountains  of  copper,  which  have  been  variously  inter- 
preted  as  vague  symbols  of  the  protection  extended  by  God 
to  His  people,  or  of  the  powers  of  the  world,  or  of  Mounts 
Olivet  and  Zion,  with  the  Valley  of  Jehoshaj^hat  lying  be- 
tween. Ingenuity  has  exhausted  itself  in  trying  to  assign 
a  meaning  to  the  colours  of  the  horses  in  the  different 
chariots;  but  they  may  have  served,  after  all,  only  to  dis- 
tinguish the  one  chariot  from  the  other.  Sent  forth  to  the 
north  and  south,  and  through  the  earth,  they  flew,  swift  as 
the  wind,  on  their  errand,  respecting  which  we  have  only 
the  mysterious  statement  of  the  attendant  xVngel,  that 
those  sent  to  the  north  had  appeased  the  Divine  anger  on 
that  region  ;  a  hint,  perhaps,  that  they  were  commissioned 
to  break  up  the  quiet  and  haughty  security  of  the  heathen 
kingdoms,  and  bring  on  them  the  judgments  of  G-od  fore- 
told by  the  propliets,  as  the  sign  of  the  approach  of  the 
Anointed  One.' 

Night  had  now  passed  ;  but  an  incident  throwing  mo- 
mentary light  on  these  long  dead  years  took  place  next 
morning.  Some  Jews  of  the  Captivity  had  come  from 
Babylon,  on  a  visit  to  their  brethren,  apparently  as  a  depu- 
tation from  the  great  body  of  exiles  who  voluntarily  re- 
mained in  Babylonia.  They  had  been  hospitably  lodged  in 
the  house  of  one  Josiali,  at  Jerusalem,  and  had  brought  a 
tribute  of  gold  and  silver  with  them,  to  express  the  sym- 
pathy felt  for  Judah  by  their  brethren  on  the  banks  of  the 
Chebar.  Of  this  silver  and  gold,  Zechariah  was  directed 
to  have  crowns  made,  primarily,  for  the  head  of  Joshua 
the  high  priest,  but  ultimately  to  be  laid  up  in  the  Temple 

>  Zech.  vi.  1-8.  «  Zech.  vi.  8.    Hag.  ii.  •?. 


443  HAGGAI   A^B   ZECHARIAH. 

when  it  was  finished,  as  a  memorial  before  God  of  those 
whose  loving  bounty  had  provided  the  materials.  The 
prophet  was  also  commissioned  to  say  to  Joshua,  in  words 
which  look  beyond  Zerubbabel  to  the  expected  Messiah,  or 
anointed  head  of  the  nation : 

"VI.  13.  Behold,*  a  man  shall  rise,  and  his  name  shall  be  The 
Sprout  or  Branch  of  David,  and  under  him  will  all  things  prosper,' 
and  he  will  build  the  Temple  of  Jehovah.  13.  He,  even  he,  shall  build 
it,  and  he  will  bear  kingly  glory, ^  and  sit  and  rule  on  his  throne,  and 
he  will  also  be  a  priest  on  his  throne,  and  there  will  be  a  counsel  of 
peace  between  him  and  Jehovah."  * 

Help,  of  which  the  crowns  were  an  earnest,  would  be 
sent,  moreover,  from  distant  lands,  as  had  been  so  often 
predicted,  if  Judah  loyally  obeyed  the  voice  of  its  God,'^  for 
all  the  visions  and  hopes  of  the  prophet,  in  keeping  with 
the  longings  of  his  age,  look  forward  to  a  time  of  great 
national  glory  under  a  descendant  of  David,  who  would 
unite  the  kingly  glory  with  that  of  the  priesthood. 

Nearly  two  years  elapsed  before  the  next  incident  re- 
corded. In  December,  B.C.  519,"  a  deputation  from  the 
inhabitants  of  Bethel,^  the  ancient  seat  of  the  calf-worship, 
came  to  Jerusalem  to  entreat  tlie  favour  of  God  for  their 
town,  and  also  to  inquire  from  the  priests  and  prophets,  of 
whom  we  know  only  Haggai  and  Zechariah,  whether  the  fast 
in  the  fifth  month,  to  commemorate  the  destruction  of  the 
Temple,  should  still  be  continued.  Darius  had  just  issued 
a  new  decree,®  ratifying  the  earlier  permission  of  Cyrus,  to 
rebuild   the  Temple,   which  had  already,  for  some  time, 

»  Zech.  vi.  12,  13.  2  Ewald.    Steiner. 

'  The  word  used  is  that  appropriated  to  kingly  majesty. 
*  This  seems  the  true  meaning  of  the  phrase. 
6  Zech.  vi.  15.  «  Kislew. 

'  Zech.  vii.  2.     "The  house  of  God  "  should  be  untranslated,  as  the  proper  name 
■'Bethel."  s  gzia  vi.  1. 


HAGGAI   AND    ZECHARIAH.  443 

been  rising  from  its  ashes  *  throngli  the  influence  of  the 
prophets.  Tliis  activity,  however,  had  not  been  unop- 
posed. The  Persian  governor  of  Syria  and  Phoenicia — the 
division  of  the  emjiire  west  of  the  Euphrates ' — with  his 
subordinate  officials,  sent  for  the  names  of  those  by  -whose 
authority  the  Temple  and  the  city  wall  were  being  restored, 
and  demanded  the  right  they  had  to  take  such  steps.  But, 
though  this  led  to  correspondence,  the  work  continued 
steadily  to  advance.  Meanwhile,  the  Persian  governor  had 
transmitted  to  Darius  a  report  of  what  was  doing.  He  and 
his  staff,  he  said,  had  gone  to  Jerusalem,  and  found  that 
the  Temple  was  being  rebuilt,  on  the  strength  of  a  decree 
of  Cyrus.  Search  having  been  made  in  consequence,  at 
Ecbatana,  in  Media,  one  of  the  Persian  capitals,^  the  action 
of  the  Jews  had  been  vindicated.  The  decree  had  been 
found  in  the  royal  i^alace,  and  the  hostile  governor  of  the 
West  was  therefore  ordered  to  allow  the  work  to  proceed, 
and  to  defray  the  expense  from  the  imperial  treasury.  He 
was,  moreover,  to  provide  the  requisites  for  the  sacrifices 
and  offerings  of  the  new  sanctuary,  that  the  loyal  prayers 
of  the  worshippers  might  be  secured.* 

The  law  of  Moses  enjoined  only  one  day  of  fasting  in  the 
year — that  of  the  great  Day  of  Atonement,^  but  Israel  had 
long  been  in  the  habit  of  holding  fasts  for  any  great  na- 
tional calamity.®  In  Babylon,  four  had,  apparently,  been 
regularly  kept  each  year — on  the  anniversaries  of  the  cap- 
ture of  Jerusalem  by  the  Chaldeans/  of  the  burning  of  the 
city  and  Temple,^  of  the  murder  of  Gedaliah,^  and  of  the 
beginning  of  the  siege  of  the  Holy  City  by  Nebuchadnez- 

»  Ezra  iv.  24  ;  v,  2.  2  Ezra  v.  3.  3  Ezra  vi.  2. 

*  Ezra  vi.  1-12.  »  Lev.  xxiii.  26-32. 

«  Judg.  XX.  26.    1  Sam.  vii.  6  ;  xxxi.  13.     Joel  ii.  15.    Isa.  Iviii.  3-12. 

'  Jer.  lii.  6, 7.  ^2  Kings  xxv.  8.    Jer.  lii.  12.  »  Jer.  xli.  2,  3. 


444  HAGGAi  a:n^d  ZECHARIAH. 

zar. '  But  that  wliicli  commemorated  the  hnriiing  of  the 
city  and  Temple  seemed,  to  the  people  of  Bethel,  out  of 
place,  now  that  both  were  rising  from  tlieir  ashes.'^  It  was 
asked,  therefore,  if  it  should  be  continued. 

The  answer  vouchsafed  was  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
worthlessness,  in  the  eyes  of  the  prophets,  of  mere  outward 
forms,  apart  from  the  spiritual  state  of  those  observing 
them.  Not  only  the  men  of  Bethel,  but  all  the  people  of 
the  land,  were  told,  in  effect,  that  fasting,  like  eating  and 
drinking,  was  their  concern,  not  Grod's.  They  were  free 
to  fast  if  they  found  it  of  advantage,  but  their  doing  so 
rested  with  themselves.  To  lament  the  burning  of  the 
Temple  in  the  fifth  month,  or  the  murder  of  Gedaliah  in 
tlie  seventh,  was  left  to  their  own  pleasure.  What  God 
cared  for  was,  that  they  should  obey  His  words,  spoken  by 
the  prophets  in  the  days  of  the  glory  of  Jerusalem  and 
Judah,  when  the  territory  of  the  kingdom  extended  to  the 
Negeb  and  the  Maritime  Plain, ^  now  held  by  the  Edomites 
and  the  Philistines. 

The  essence  of  what  was  thus  uttered  to  their  fathers, 
Zechariah  tells  us,  was  that  they  should — 

"VII.  9.  Judge  righteous  judgment,''  and  shew  love  and  compassion 
every  one  to  the  other.  10.  Do  not  oppress  the  widow,  or  the  father- 
less, the  alien  or  the  poor,  and  let  none  of  you  imagine  evil  against 
his  brother  in  his  heart.  11.  But,  (he  adds),  your  fathers  refused  to 
hearken,  and  gave  an  unwilling  shoulder  to  God's  yoke,  and  stopped 
their  ears,  that  they  should  not  hear.  12.  Yea,  they  hardened  their 
hearts  like  a  diamond,  not  to  hear  the  Law,  and  the  words  sent  by 
fehovah  of  Hosts,  through  His  Spirit,  by  the  earlier  prophets.  There- 
Jore  there  came  great  wrath  from  Jehovah  of  Hosts.     13.  And  since 

1  2  Kings  XXV.  1.  Jer.  Hi.  4.  These  fasts  were  held  respectively  on  the  ninth  of 
the  fourth  month,  and  the  seventh  and  tenth  of  the  fifth,  seventh,  and  tenth  months 
See  Zech.  viii.  19. 

2  Hag.  i.  4.  3  Ezra  vii.  1-8.  *  Zech.  vii.  9-13. 


HAGGAI  AND  ZECHARIAH.  445 

they  would  not  hear  when  lie  called,  so,  (said  He),  *  They  shall  call 
and  I  will  not  hear,  14.  and  I  will  scatter  them  with  a  tempest,*  among 
all  the  nations  whom  they  do  not  know.'  Thus  the  land  became  deso- 
late beliind  them,  (when  they  were  carried  off  to  exile),  no  one  passing 
through  or  returning  to  it:  for  (the  wickedness  of)  your  fathers  made 
the  pleasant  land  a  desolation." 

It  had  been  thus  in  the  jiust,  but  better  days  had  come. 
The  newly  awakened  zeal  of  the  people  for  Jehovah  had 
won  back  His  favour,  and  He  would  bless  them  beyond 
measure,  if  they  honoured  His  Law  in  the  future.  Por- 
tions of  at  least  two  addresses,  to  cheer  the  community 
by  such  assurances,  still  remain.  In  the  first,  Zechariah 
speaks  thus  : 

•'VIII.  2.  I,  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  am  exceeding  jealous  for  the 
honour  of  Zion,  yea,  jealous  beyond  measure.  3.  1  have  returned  to 
Zion,  and  will  dwell  in  the  midst  of  Jerusalem,  and  it  will  be  called  a 
city  of  the  truth,  the  mountain  of  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  the  Holy  Moun- 
tain. 4.  Thus  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts :  Old  men  and  old  women  shall 
yet  sit  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  each  man  staff  in  hand  for  very 
age,  5.  and  the  streets  will  be  full  of  boys  and  girls  playing  in  them. 
6.  If  this  be  marvellous  in  the  eyes  of  the  remnant  of  this  people, 
(alive)  in  those  days,  shall  it  be  marvellous  in  My  eyes  ?  says  Jehovah 
of  Hosts.  7.  Thus  says  He:  Behold  I  am  about  to  save  My  people 
from  the  east  and  from  the  west;  8.  and  I  will  bring  them  hither, 
and  they  will  dwell  in  the  midst  of  Jerusalem,  and  they  shall  be  My 
people,  and  I  shall  be  their  God,  in  truth  and  righteousness. 

"9.  Thus  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts:  Let  your  hands  be  strong,  ye  who 
hear  these  words,  from  the  mouth  of  the  prophets  now  living,  in  these 
days,  when  the  House  of  Jehovah  has  been  founded,  even  the  Temple, 
that  it  might  be  rebuilt.  10.  For  before  these  days  there  were  no 
wages  for  men,  or  hire  for  cattle,  and  there  was  no  peace  to  him  who 
went  out  or  came  in,  because  of  the  enemy,'  for  I  let  loose  all  men 
against  each  other. 

"  11.  But  now  am  I  not  as  I  was  in  former  days,  towards  the  rem- 
nant of  this  people?  says  Jehjvah  of  Hosts.     12.  For  (the  plant '  of 

>  Zech.  vii.  14 ;  viii.  1-12. 

^  The  i)aj::.-^age   shews  vividly   the   wretched  condition  of  the  first  period  of  the 
Return.  >  Literally,  "  seed." 


446  HAGGAI   AND   ZECHARIAH. 

peace),  the  vine,  will  yield  its  fruit,  and  the  earth  its  increase,  and  the 
heavens  their  dew;  and  I  will  give  all  this  for  an  inheritance  to  the 
remnant  of  this  people.  13.  And  it  shall  be,^  that,  as  your  fate  (sent 
for  your  punishment  from  above)  was  used  among  the  nations  as  a 
curse  (they  might  invoke  on  each  other),  so  ye  shall  be  used  to  bless 
by  (for  the  Divine  favour  shewn  you):  fear  not;  let  your  hands  be 
strong! 

"  14.  For- thus  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts:  As  I  resolved  to  punish  you, 
when  your  fathers  provoked  Me  to  wrath,  and  I  did  not  repent  from 
My  purpose ;  15.  so  I  have  once  more  resolved,  in  these  days,  to  do 
good  to  Jerusalem  and  to  the  House  of  Judah.  Fear  not  !  16.  These 
are  the  things  ye  shall  do  (to  secure  His  blessing) ;  speak  truth  every 
man  to  his  neighbour,  let  your  judges  judge  according  to  truth  and 
peace,  in  your  gates;'  17.  plot  no  evil  in  your  hearts  against  your 
neighbour,  and  hate  the  false  oath; — for  I  hate  all  these  things,  says 
Jehovah." 

The  question  of  public  fasts  seems  to  have  still  agitated 
the  community,  notwithstanding  Zechariah's  utterance  on 
the  subject.  He  therefore  took  an  opportunity  of  revert- 
ing to  it.  The  four  fasts  held  in  Babylon  would  hence- 
forth be  turned  to  feasts,  if  they  loved  truth  and  peace, 
and  acted  up  to  the  Divine  requirements. 

"VIII.  20.  It  will  yet  be,  that  nations,  and  the  people  of  many 
cities,  will  come  (as  pilgrims  to  Jerusalem);  31.  and  the  inhabitants  oi 
one  town  will  go  to  those  of  another,  and  say,  *  Let  us  intreat  the 
favour  of  Jehovah,  and  seek  Jehovah  of  Hosts;'  *  I  will  go  also.'  22. 
And  many  peoples  and  strong  nations  will  come  to  seek  Jehovah  of 
Hosts  in  Jerusalem,  and  to  intreat  His  favour.  And  23.  in  those  days 
ten  men,  from  all  the  languages  of  the  nations,  will  lay  hold  on  the 
skirt  of  a  Jew,  and  say,  *  Let  us  go  up  (to  Jerusalem)  with  you,  for  we 
have  heard  that  God  is  with  you.'" 

The  zeal  and  industry  of  the  authorities  of  Judah,  hav- 
ing once  been  fairly  roused  by  the  fervent  energy  of  the 
prophets,  sustained  itself  nobly  till  the  new  Temple  was 
finished.     Four  years  sufficed  for  this,  so  great  was  the 

*  Zech..  viii.  13-23-.  ^  Where  the  open-air  courts  of  the  East  were  held. 


HAGGAI   AND   ZECIiARIAH.  447 

enthusiasm,  and  so  efficient  the  help  from  the  Persian 
authorities,  after  Darius  had  favoured  the  undertaking. 
At  last^  in  March  of  the  year  B.C.  516,  the  sixth  year  of 
Darius,  twenty  years  after  the  Return,  the  sanctuary  was 
ready  for  consecration,  though  details  in  its  ornamentation 
seem  to  have  been  added  so  late  as  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes, 
the  next  Persian  king.* 

We  know  very  little  of  the  building  thus  raised,  after  so 
long  a  straggle  with  open  enemies,  apathetic  friends,  and 
meagre  resources.  It  seems,  with  its  forecourts,  to  have 
occupied  the  same  space  as  that  of  Solomon.  The  size  of 
the  edifice  itself,  if  the  measurements  given  in  the  decree 
of  Cyrus  were  followed,''  was  larger  than  that  of  its  prede- 
cessor.^ A  wall  of  three  rows  of  squared  stone,  coped  with 
planed  beams,  enclosed  the  wide  space  of  the  Temple 
grounds.*  The  Holy  of  Holies,  which  was  shut  off  by  a 
great  veiling  curtain,*  was  entirely  empty,  but  a  point  of 
the  natural  rock,  projecting  three  finger  breadths  above 
the  floor,  and  now  enclosed  as  the  central  glory  of  the 
*^Dome  of  the  Rock,^^*  took  the  place  of  the  ancient  ark 
and  furnished  a  rest  on  which  the  high  priest  could  lay  his 
pan  of  incense,  on  the  great  Day  of  Atonement.'  The  ark 
was  supposed  either  to  have  been  hidden  by  Jeremiah,  in 
Mount  Nebo,'  or  to  have  been  carried  to  heaven  *  till  the 
appearance  of  the  Messiah.  The  cherubim,  the  tables  of 
stone,  the  urn  of  manna,  and  the  rod  of  Aaron,  were  simi- 
larly absent — a  state  of  things  anticipated  by  Jeremiah  in 

»  Ezra  vi.  14,  15.  a  Ezra  vi.  3,  ff . 

8  The  only  notice  we  have  of  the  size  of  the  Second  Temple,  besides  the  incidental 
Bllusions  in  Ezra,  is  found  in  Jos.,  Ant.,  XV.  xi.  1. 

*  Ezra  vi.  4.  '1  Mace.  i.  22  ;  iv.  51. 

•  See  Recovery  of  Jerusalem,  passim. 

'  Jos.,  Bell.  Jud.,  V.  V.  5.    Joma,  v.  2.    Riehm,  pp.  210, 1635. 

8  Mace.  ii.  5.     Treasures  of  the  Talmud,  p.  32.    This  vol.  p.  208.  •  Rev.  xi.  19. 


448  HAGGAI    AKD   ZECHARIAH. 

his  prediction,  that  wlieu  the  nobler  presence  of  Jehovah 
was  vouchsafed  under  the  regenerated  Theocracy,  men 
would  no  longer  think  of  the  ark.*  The  golden  shields 
that  had  hung  in  the  outer  chambers  were  gone,  and  so 
was  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  Avhich  the  high  priest  had 
worn  over  his  official  robes.  As  in  the  Tabernacle,  there 
was  only  one  golden  lamp  in  the  Holy  Place,  behind  the 
veil,''  a  table  of  shewbread,  and  the  incense  altar,  plated 


The  Seven-branched  Candlestick,  and  Other  Spoil  prom  the  Temple.— 
Arch  of  Titus. 

with  gold/  with  golden  censers,  and  a  goodly  array  of  the 
ancient  vessels  of  precious  metal,  carried  off  by  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, but  restored  by  Cyrus.  There  were  two  forecourts/ 
in  the  inner  of  which  stood  the  huge  square  altar  of  burnt 
offering,  of  unhewn  stones  ^ — thirty  feet  each  way,  and 
fifteen  high,  with  an  approach  by  an  inclined  plane.  A 
great  basin,  for  the  necessary  ablutions  of  the  priests,  stood 

1  Jer.  iii.  16  •.  xxxi.  31.    Only  the  tables  of  stone  had  been  in  Solomon's  Temple.    1 
Kings  viii.  9.     3  Chron.  v.  9.  2  j  Mace.  iv.  51. 

«  1  Mace.  1.  23  ;  iv.  49.  *  1  Mace.  i.  38  (48  in  Greek).  *  1  Mace.  iv.  44. 


HAGQAI    AND   ZECHARIAH.  449 

near  it. '  The  court  was  bordered  by  convenient  store 
chambers  and  cells/  and  by  chambers  for  the  priests/  the 
whole  being  adorned  by  jnllared  porches."*  A  bridge  led, 
on  the  west,  over  the  valley  between  Moriah  and  Zion,'  and 
various  gates  permitted  free  entrance  and  egress  at  dif- 
ferent points. 

In  the  former  Temple,  numerous  trees,  *'  planted  in 
the  courts  of  the  Lord,^'  *  had  offered  a  welcome  shade  to 
the  throngs  of  worshippers,  but  none  were  permitted  in  the 
courts  of  the  Second  Temple,  perhaps  from  dread  of  having 
anything  like  a  heathen  grove  near  the  sanctuary.  An- 
other contrast  was  no  less  striking.  No  longer  its  own 
master,  the  dependence  of  the  community  on  a  foreign 
State  was  shewn  in  the  erection  of  a  military  tower  or 
castle  at  the  north-west  of  the  precincts,'  by  the  Persian 
authorities,  as  a  residence  for  the  governor,  and,  if  neces- 
sary, a  military  post.  This  was  the  building  known  during 
the  Eoman  domination  as  the  Fortress  Antonia,  the  Baris 
of  the  Asmoneans.  Over  the  eastern  gate  of  the  Temple 
space  another  sign  of  foreign  rule  was  seen,  in  a  sculptured 
representation  of  the  Persian  capital,  from  which  the  gate 
was  known  as  that  of  Susa.  For  the  first  time,  also,  a 
space  was  ^^rovided,  by  cutting  off  part  of  the  outer  court, 
for  heathen  proselytes,  who,  while  worshippers  of  Jehovah, 
had  not  entirely  conformed  to  Judaism. 

The  exact  date  of  the  consecration  of  the  new  Temple 
is  not  stated,  but  it  was  doubtless  a  time  of  great  rejoicing. 
The  priests  and  Levites  in  their  respective  '•  courses, ^^  or 
successive  periods  of  service,  and  the  people  at  large,  were 

1  Sirach  1.  3.  ^  Ezra  viii.  29  ;  x.  6.    Neh.  iii.  30  ;  x.  37  ;  xii.  44  ;  xiii.  5. 

»  1  Mace.  iv.  38  48.  <  Jos.,  Ant.,  XI.  iv.  7  ;  XIV.  xvi.  2. 

»  Joe.,  Ant.,  XIV.  iv.  2.    Bell.  Jicl.,  I.  vii.  2. 
•  Jos.,  c.  Ap.,\.  22.  7  Neh.  ii.  8 ;  vii.  a. 

VOL.  VI.— 29 


450  HAGGAI    AND    ZECHARIAH. 

at  last  of  one  mind  in  their  lo3^alty  to  the  ancient  faith.  A 
sin  offering  for  all  Israel/  of  a  hundred  oxen,  two  hundred 
rams,  and  four  hundred  lambs,  smoked  on  the  altar,  with 
twelve  goats,  in  addition,  to  represent  the  twelve  tribes  ; 
as  if  in  fond  hope  that  the  whole  captivity  of  North  and 
South  would,  sonic  day,  reassemble  round  the  one  religious 
centre. 

In  due  time  followed  the  celebration  of  the  Passover,  the 
first  after  the  Return,  on  the  14th  of  Nisan,  our  April,  its 
ancient  date  ;  the  seven  days  of  unleavened  bread  succeed- 
ing, at  its  close.  No  ceremonial  laxity  was  any  longer  per- 
mitted. The  priests  and  Levites,  without  exception,  had 
purified  themselves  strictly,  according  to  "the  book  of 
Moses.  ^'  The  exclusive  right  of  slaying  the  paschal  lambs 
for  priest  and  laity  alike,  as  well  as  for  their  own  order, 
was  assumed  by  the  Levites.  Anciently,  every  head  of  a 
family  had  done  so  for  his  own  household  ;*  at  the  Passover 
of  Hezekiah,  the  Levites  killed  the  lambs  for  all  who  had 
not  legally  purified  themselves  ;  ^  but  from  the  days  of 
Josiah,  the  great  restorer  of  Judaism  in  its  narrow  sense, 
and  indeed  its  virtual  founder,  the  usage  had  been  intro- 
duced which  now  became  the  permanent  rule.* 

Prom  this  time,  the  wide  recognition  of  Jerusalem  as 
the  only  religious  centre  of  Judaism,  and  the  strictness 
with  which  the  Levitical  precepts  were  enforced,  stead- 
ily increased.  Not  only  those  who  had  come  from  Baby- 
lon, but  numbers  of  the  survivors  of  the  North  and  South 
Kingdoms,  whose  fathers  had  escaped  deportation  to 
Assyria  or  the  Euphrates,  and  even  the  dispersed  from 
other  lands,  came  up  to  the  Passover.     Scattered  families, 

»  Ezra  vi.  16-18.  >  Exod.  xii.  6. 

«  2  Chron.  xxx.  17.  *  2  Chron.  xxxv.  11-14. 


HAGGAI   AN^D   ZECHARIAH.  451 

or  small  communities,  of  pure  Jews,  still  guarded  their 
separate  nationality  and  hereditary  faith  in  remote  and 
sequestered  parts  of  tlie  land,  amidst  the  heathen  or  half- 
heathen  population  by  which  it  was  mainly  occupied. 
Galilee  sent  up  its  representatives  of  the  Ten  Tribes  ;  the 
remnant  saved  from  Nineveh.  All  alike,  henceforth, 
separated  themselves  absolutely  from  the  heathenism 
around  them,  and  accepted  Jerusalem  as  the  religious 
centre  of  the  race.  The  envy  of  Ephraim  had  departed, 
and  Judah  no  longer  vexed  Ephraim.  * 

Such  a  festivity,  so  full  of  hope  and  so  tender  with  asso- 
ciations of  the  long  past,  was  a  fitting  close  to  the  anxieties 
and  alarms  of  the  twenty  years  it  happily  ended.  Jubilant 
Psalms,  bearing  in  the  Greek  version  the  names  of  Haggai 
and  Zechariah,^  embody  in  the  hallelujalis  echoing  through 
their  successive  strophes,  the  gratitude  to  Jehovah  felt  by 
the  new-born  nation.  All  nature  is  invoked  to  praise  the 
great  name  of  God,  who  had  ^^  raised  up  those  that  were 
bowed  down,''  and  had  dealt  "  with  Jacob  and  Israel,  as 
He  had  not  with  any  other  nation."  "  Young  men  and 
maidens,  old  men  and  children,"  are  summoned  to  unite 
in  exalting  His  glory,  in  the  old  centre  of  their  national 
religion.  The  sound  of  the  trumpet,  the  psaltery,  and  the 
harp  resounded  in  the  Temple  courts,  and  the  timbrel 
and  cymbals  led  on  dances  of  maidens  in  the  spaces 
around.  It  was  meet  that  the  formal  re-establishment  of 
the  Theocracy  should  be  celebrated  amidst  universal 
rejoicing. 

»  Isa.  xi.  13.  *  P88.  cxliv.,  cxlv.,  cxivi.,  cilvii.,  cxlviil. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

QUEEK     ESTHER. 

The  interval,  from  the  Return  in  B.C.  536  to  the  com- 
pletion of  the  Temple  in  B.C.  5IG,  had  been  momentous  in 
the  great  world.  In  B.C.  529,  Cyrus  had  fallen  ingloriously, 
in  a  distant  war,  and  had  been  succeeded  by  his  son  Cam- 
byses,  whose  reign  was  signalized,  at  its  beginning,  by  the 
secret  murder  of  his  brother  Bardes,  and,  near  its  close,  by 
that  of  one  of  his  sisters,  who  was  also  his  wife,  and  had 
dared  to  weep  for  her  brother^s  fate.  Determined  to  re- 
conquer Egypt,  his  reign  was  chiefly  spent  in  the  Nile 
countries,  till,  on  his  march  back  to  the  East,  in  B.C.  522, 
he  killed  himself  in  a  fit  of  despair,  in  Syria  ;  remorse  for 
the  murder  of  his  sister  and  brother,  the  outburst  of  re- 
volts, and  the  excitement  of  his  Egyptian  campaigns  and 
disasters,  having  unhinged  his  mind.*  During  his  reign, 
the  colony  at  Jerusalem  must  have  been  constantly  kept 
in  agitation,  by  the  passage  and  repassage  of  troops  along 
the  coast,  and  by  the  anxieties  of  the  war.     Darius  Hystas- 

>  Ebevs  paints  his  ferocity  admirably  in  Eine  JEgyiit.  Kdnujstochter.  As  I  have 
already  pointed  out,  Cambyses,  like  his  father,  was  a  polytheist.  Egyptian  monu- 
ments shew  that  the  story  told  by  Herodotus,  of  his  deriding  the  Egyptian  gods,  de- 
stroying their  images,  and  stabbing  the  sacred  bull.  Apis,  was  quite  incorrect.  He  is 
described  by  the  inscriptions  of  the  priests  themselves  as  their  friend,  the  adorerof 
their  gods,  and  the  benefactor  of  iheir  temples.  The  very  bull  he  is  said  to  have 
slain  has  been  discovered,  as  a  mummy,  in  a  huge  sarcophagus  of  granite,  on  the 
outside  of  which  Cambyses  kneels  before  the  sacred  beast,  which  we  are  told,  in  an 
inscription,  was  honoured  with  due  funeral  rites,  Cambyses  himself  taking  part  i^* 
them. 


QUEEK   ESTHER.  453 

pis,  who  succeeded  him  after  a  short  interval,  when  the 
false  Bardes,  who  had  usurped  the  throne,  had  been  over- 
thrown, spent  his  reign  in  almost  constant  wars,  to  quell 
the  risings  of  province  after  province,  from  Herat  to  the 
Grecian  Archipelago.  In  the  very  year  when  tlie  Temple 
was  finished  (b.c.  olG),  Babylon  had  to  be  wrested  by  a 
Persian  general  from  an  Armenian  prince  who  had  seized 
it ;  the  Great  King  himself  being  in  Egypt. ' 

The  reign  of  Darius  was,  however,  especially  notable  as 
that  during  which  the  great  struggle  between  Asiatic  bar- 
barism and  Western  civilization,  after  having  lasted  for 
generations,  was  virtually  decided.  Determined,  like  Cy- 
rus, to  conquer  the  Greeks,  in  whose  hands  in  those  ages 
were  the  destinies  of  the  world,  his  triumph  would  have 
extended  the  despotism  of  the  East  into  Europe,  and  the 
dawning  liberty  and  progress  of  humanity  would  thus  have 
been  extinguished  in  night.  But  this  was  prevented  for 
ever  by  the  battle  of  Marathon,  in  B.C.  490 — the  Greeks, 
by  their  success  on  that  great  day,  achieving  tlie  victory 
of  freedom  for  all  after  ages  in  the  Western  continent. 
Modern  history  began  when  the  Persian  hosts  were  driven 
back  to  their  ships  by  Miltiades.  Political  and  intellectual 
day  rose  on  the  world,  in  these  hours  ;  and  Asia,  yielding 
up  her  supremacy  to  the  Aryan  races,  was  finally  barred 
from  crossing  the  Hellespont.  The  reign  of  Darius  lasted 
till  B.C.  486,  and  was  a  time  of  peace  and  prosperity  to  the 
Jews,  though  they  were  still  exposed  to  the  intrigues  of 
their  enemies  at  his  court.  After  his  death,  the  throne  of 
Western  Asia  was  held,  for  twenty-one  years,  by  Xerxes, 
who  renewed  the  struggle  for  the  conquest  of  Greece,  in 
which  his  father  had  so  signally  failed.     But  he  only  ex. 

1  Justi,  p.  55. 


454  QUEEN    ESTHER. 

hausted  his  empire,  for  his  mightiest  efforts  to  crush  the 
West  were  shattered  at  Thermopylae  and  Salamis.  News 
of  these  great  events  must  have  been  circulated  eagerly 
among  the  settlers  at  Jerusalem  and  in  Judaho 

It  Avas  in  the  reign  of  this  king,  whose  name,  Ahasuerus^ 
was  known  to  the  Greeks  as  Xerxes,  that  the  incident  in 
Jewish  history  happened,  which  forms  the  subject  of  the 
Book  of  Esther.  The  Great  King  was  idling  his  life  away 
in  the  fortress  palace  of  Shushan,  among  the  cool  moun- 
tain breezes  of  his  metropolitan  province,  while  his 
generals  and  soldiers  were  fighting  and  dying  for  him  in 
the  East  and  West.  The  story  opens  in  the  third  year  of 
his  reign,  about  seven  years  after  the  battle  of  Marathon,' 
while  the  war  with  Greece,  so  disastrous  to  Persia,  was 
still  raging.  But  the  majestic  empire  of  Cyrus  and  Darius 
still  held  together,  from  India  to  Ethiopia,  embracing  127 
provinces,  and  surrounding  its  chief  with  almost  unimag- 
inable splendour  and  wealth. 

The  city  of  Susa,  or  Shushan,  lay  about  150  miles  north 
of  the  head  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  in  the  uplands  of  Susi- 
ana,  a  mountainous  region,  east  of  the  Tigris.  The  river 
Choaspes  flowed  brightly  through  the  valleys  on  the  east  of 
the  city,  while  the  Euliius,  the  Ulai  of  Daniel,^  with  the 
Shapur,  and  other  streams,  spread  a  network  of  shining 
waters  round  it,  making  the  region  a  proverb  for  its  luxuri- 
ance and  fertility.'  The  capital  was  famous  for  its  palace 
fortress,  one  of  the  residences  of  the  Great  King ;  each 
monarch,  apparently,  adding  a  house  for  himself  to  the 
vast  piles  already  built  by  his  predecessors.  At  Persepolis, 
in  the  mountains,  about  300  miles  to  the  south-east,  the 

1  Marathon,  b.c.  490.    The  reign  of  Xerxes  was  extended  from  b.c.  486-b.c.  465 
(Vaux),  or  b.c.  485-465  (Jueti). 
'  Dan.  viii.  2,  16.  '  Geog.  Journ.^  vol.  ix.  p,  71. 


QUEEl^   ESTHER.  455 

remains  of  a  palace  built  by  Xerxes  himself,  help  us  to 
realize  the  splendour  of  that  of  Shushan.  A  great  plat- 
form of  hewn  stone  formed  a  terrace  for  the  central  build- 
ing, which  measured  about  350  feet  in  width  and  250  feet 
in  depth.  Some  of  the  pillars  which  bore  up  its  porticos 
are  still  standing,  and  vary  in  height  from  60  to  76  feet ; 
their  whole  surface  covered  with  elaborate  ornamentation. 
An  immense  hall,  in  which  stood  the  throne,  stretched 
across  the  front  of  this  central  building,  while  other  cham- 
bers equally  grand,  flanked  it  on  either  side.  At  Shushan, 
the  palace  stood  on  three  distinct  platforms  of  earth,  the 
mounds  formed  by  which  cover  a  space  of  three  and  a  half 
miles,  round,  and  rise  to  a  height  of  from  fifty  to  sixty 
feet.  The  sides  of  these  immense  elevations  shone  with  a 
casing  of  enamelled  bricks,  displaying,  in  vivid  colours,  a 
long  succession  of  military  splendour,  in  life-sized  figures 
of  the  different  services  that  made  up  the  armies  of  the 
empire — guards,  archers,  spearmen,  engineers,  light  and 
heavy  regiments,  in  the  widely  diversified  uniforms  of  many 
nationalities ;  cavalry,  as  varied ;  brigades  of  chariots, 
with  their  charioteers  and  warriors ;  and,  amidst  all,  the 
gorgeously  arrayed  generals,  colonels,  and  captains,  who 
led  these  multitudinous  hosts  ;  the  whole  constitutins'  a 
wondrous  exhibition  of  mural  decoration.  Above  this, 
stretched  through  its  whole  length,  a  frieze  of  lions,  drawn 
with  wonderful  skill,  each  about  six  feet  high,  and  more 
than  eleven  feet  from  the  mouth  to  the  end  of  the  out- 
stretched tail,  standing  out,  in  their  natural  colours,  from 
a  background  of  pale  turquoise,  suggestive  of  the  limpid 
Persian  sky.  Elsewhere,  other  styles  of  ornamentation 
prevailed — borrowed  from  flowers,  or  from  the  fancy  of  the 
artist ;  no  part  of  the  vast  surfaces  being  left  unadorned. 


456  QUEEN    ESTHER. 

The  gTCfit  audience  liall  of  Xerxes  stood  on  one  of  the 
three  artificial  phitforrns,  and  was  approached,  on  the 
south-west,  hy  a  grand  staircase,  wide  enough,  as  it  seems, 
to  let  an  army  ascend  its  stately  steps.  The  audience  hall, 
itself,  was  nearly  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  broad,  and 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  deep,  its  roof  being  sup- 
ported by  thirty-six  columns,  the  size  of  which  may  be 
estimated  by  that  of  those  in  the  smaller  audience  chamber 
at  Persepolis,  which  are  over  eighteen  feet  in  diameter. 
The  enamelled  bricks  of  many  colours,  covering  the  walls 
on  every  side,  represent,  in  minute  completeness,  among 
other  glories,  a  march  of  the  ^''Immortals,'"  who  formed 
the  haughty  body-guard  of  the  Great  King.  These  famous 
soldiers,  bearing  yellow  bows  and  reddish-brown  quivers, 
and  holding  in  their  one  hand  a  silver-knobbed  pike,  are 
set  off  in  golden  yellow  or  white  tunics,  spangled,  in  some 
cases,  with  green  or  blue  daisies,  or  other  distinctions  ; 
their  feet  decorated  with  yellow  or  sky-blue  boots ;  their 
beards  dressed  in  ringlets,  according  to  Asiatic  fashion  ; 
and  their  heads  arrayed  in  turbans.  Some  wear  golden 
ornaments  on  their  breasts  or  necks,  and  others  bracelets 
and  ear-rings  ;  these  being  the  thousand  knights,  who  were 
over  the  ten  thousand  guards,  to  whom  was  committed  the 
special  care  of  the  life  of  the  Great  King.  Strange  to  say, 
they  are,  in  great  part,  blacks,  which  is  in  keeping  with 
the  fact  that  the  dynasty  of  the  Achaemenids  recruited 
this  favoured  corps,  to  a  large  extent,  from  the  dark  popu- 
lations of  India,  trusting  to  the  fidelity  of  foreign  merce- 
naries, rather  than  to  their  own  countrymen,  as  the 
Caliphs  of  Bagdad,  from  the  ninth  century,  had  a  body- 
guard of  Turks  ;  as  David  chose  his  Cent-Gardes  from  the 
warriors   of  Philistia,    or  as   the   French    kings   gathered 


QUEEK    ESTHER. 


457 


round  them  a  body  of  Swiss.  The  walls  of  the  audience 
chamber  were  eighteen  feet  thick,  to  keep  out  the  heat, 
while  the  three  great  ante-chambers  measured,  each,  200 
feet  in  width  and  G5  in  depth.  Thirty-six  pillars,  as  I 
have  said,  supported  the  roof  ;  which,  in  each  of  the  ante- 
chambers rested  on  twelve.  But  this  was  only  the  lower 
story.  Overhead,  the  building  rose  to  a  height  of  from 
100  to  120  feet,  so  that  it  must  have  towered,  in  all,  170 
or  180  feet  above  the  ground.  Spread- 
ing far  on  every  side  from  this  amazing 
structure  were  gardens,  well  called  a 
"paradise.^'  Huge  four-footed  colossi, 
with  wings  and  human  heads,  flanked 
all  the  gates  and  doors  ;  and  flights  of 
marble  steps,  the  stones  of  which  were 
of  gigantic  size,  supplied  approaches 
worthy  of  such  a  building.* 

Fifty-two  years  had  passed  since  the 
Eeturn,  when  Xerxes,  in  the  mere 
license  of  pride  and  boundless  wealth, 
ordered  a  series  of  feasts  to  be  given, 
on  a  scale  of  surpassing  magnificence, 
in  his  fj^rounds  and  halls.     The  table  of 

°  _  ^  Persian  Noble. 

the  Great  King  was  proverbial  for  its 
splendid  appointments  and  its  luxury.  Vast  numbers  of 
oxen,  game,  and  fowl,  were  consumed  each  day ;  for  not 
only  the  king,  his  court  and  harem,  but  his  whole  life- 
guard, consisting  of  2,000  cavalry,  2,000  mounted  lancers, 
and  10,000  infantry,  were  fed  in  the  palace.* 

'  Fergnsson,  in  Diet,  of  Bible.  Jasti,  p.  107.  Dienlafoy,  V Art  atitigue  de  ia  Perse, 
patsim.    Babelon'8  Manual  of  Oriental  Antiqmties,  146,  ff. 

^  Herod.,  vii.  40,  41.  Duncker,  Gexch.  des  Alierth.,  vol.  ii.  p.  609.  Justi,  p.  126. 
Ebers  make;^  the  Great  King  feed  15,000  men  daily  {JSgypt.  Kdnigttochter,  Tol.  iii.  p. 
59).    The  cost  he  estimates  at  £90,000  a  day. 


458 


QUEEI^    ESTHER. 


Summoned  to  the  great  festival  now  to  be  held,  all  the 
satraps  and  their  subordinates^  the  chiefs  of  the  Persian 
and  Median  armies,  and  the  nobles  and  magnates  of  the 
empire,'  assembled  in  successive  companies  during  six 
months,  for  so  long  did  the  succession  of  banquets  last, 
each  marked  by  all  possible  magnificence,  to  display  the 
wealth  and  flatter  the  majesty  of  the  king.  Nor  was  even 
this  enough.  The  great  world  having  thus  been  duly  hon- 
oured, a  feast  of  seven  days 
was  proclaimed  for  all  the 
population  of  Susa,  in  the 
"  court  of  the  garden  of  the 
king's  palace."  White, 
parti-coloured,  and  purple- 
blue  hangings,  held,  by 
cords  of  white  and  purple, 
to  silver  curtain-poles  and 
marble  pillars,  turned  the 
vast  space  laid  out  for  the 
banquet,  into  a  grand  open- 
air  hall.  Couches  of  gold 
and  silver  for  the  guests 
stretched  in  long  rows,  and 
the  ground  was  paved  for 
the  occasion  with  alabaster, 
mother-of-pearl,  and  black  and  white  marble,"^  like  the 
floor  of  the  audience  hall.  The  drinking  vessels  for  the 
throng  of  guests  were  each  different  in  pattern  from  the 
other,  and  all  of  gold  ;  and  the  wine  from  the  royal  cellars 
was  either  that  of  Aleppo,  which  alone  the  G-reat  King 


The  Persian  King.— Behistan. 


1  Esth.  1.  3. 

*  This  appears  to  be  the  proper  translation  of  Esth.  1.  6. 


QUEEN    ESTHER.  459 

drank,  or  of  some  other  famous  growths.'  Precious  as  it 
was,  it  flowed  like  water ;  every  one  could  drink  as  he 
chose. 

The  Persian  kings  had  always  several  wives  of  various 
grades/  including  generally,  one  or  more  of  their  own  sis- 
ters. At  this  time  Vashti,  ^'the  best,^'  reigned  supreme  as 
the  royal  favourite,  though  probably  not  a  wife  of  the  first 
rank.  To  her  it  fell  to  entertain  the  women  of  8usa  at  a 
separate  feast,  for  the  guests  were  too  numerous  to  allow  the 
ladies  to  sit,  as  usual,  with  their  husbands.^  The  feasting 
had  lasted  six  days,  and  was  to  close  on  the  seventh.  Wine 
and  excitement  had  turned  the  brain  of  Xerxes.  Forget- 
ting his  royal  dignity  and  that  of  his  queens,  he  called  on 
the  seven  eunuchs  who  waited  before  him,  to  bring  Vashti, 
and  display  her  charms,  unveiled,  before  the  assembled  mul- 
titude of  half-drunken  men.  But  remembering  perhaps, 
how,  in  the  time  of  Darius,  the  Macedonian  ladies,  intro- 
duced to  a  Persian  banquet  in  the  same  way,  had  been 
grossly  insulted,"  she  hesitated  to  come,  alike  from  respect 
to  the  king  and  to  herself.  It  was  enough.  Disobedience 
on  the  part  of  any  one,  to  his  lightest  whim,  was  not  to  be 
brooked.  It  might  be  followed  by  others.  Vashti,  more- 
over, had  an  enemy  present — the  chief  of  the  eunuchs — 
who  fanned  the  mad  anger  of  his  master.  His  proposal 
that  she  should  be  degraded,  and  another  queen  chosen  in 
her  place,  was  at  once  accepted. 

Among  the  descendants  of  the  Jewish  exiles  carried  off 

>  The  Great  King,  wherever  he  might  be,  drank  only  the  water  of  the  Choaspes, 
from  Susa,  ate  only  bread  from  wheat  of  Egypt  or  Assos,  and  drank  only  the  wine 
of  Aleppo.  This  reminds  one  of  that  inexpressible  imposture,  the  Turkish  Sultan, 
having  water  from  the  Nile  carried  everywhere  after  him  through  Europe,  for  hia 
baths. 

a  Herod.,  iii.  2,  68,  69.     Darius  had  six. 

»  Herod.,  ix.  110  ;  v.  18.  *  Herod.,  v.  18. 


460  QUEEN    ESTHER. 

by  Nebuchadnezzar  in  his  first  deportation  of  the  popu- 
lation from  Judah,  was  an  orphan  maiden  of  Benjamin — 
Hadassah,  "the  myrtle,"  known  afterwards  as  Esther, 
^'  the  star/'  perhaps  Venus.  She  must  have  been  very 
young,  for  maidens  in  Persia  are  in  their  glory  at  twelve, 
and  fade  by  the  age  of  twenty.'  Her  cousin,  Mordecai, 
who  treated  her  as  his  own  child,  filled  some  office  in  the 
palace,  and,  seeing  her  beauty,  resolved  to  advance  the  in- 
terests of  his  race  by  getting  for  her,  if  possible,  the  place 
formerly  held  by  Vashti.  Introduced  to  the  eunuchs  of 
the  harem,  Esther  spent  the  usual  time  of  preparation  for 
seeing  the  king — a  year — in  the  customary  training  and 
care  of  her  personal  charms.' 

In  B.C.  479,^  the  year  in  which  the  defeats  of  Plataea  and 
Mycale  frightened  the  Persians  from  Ionia,  Esther's  time 
came  to  appear  before  Xerxes,  and  the  result  was  love  at 
first  sight.  Adopted  as  his  favourite,  the  royal  crown 
was  set  on  her  head,  and  she  was  raised  to  the  position 
among  the  royal  wives  formerly  held  by  Vashti.  She  had 
not,  as  yet,  made  known  her  race  or  family,  and  was 
afraid  to  do  so,  but  a  fortunate  incident  soon  made  her 
position  secure.  A  conspiracy  of  two  palace  officials  to 
murder  Xerxes  came  to  the  knowledge  of  Mordecai,  whose 
duties  gave  him  a  place  in  a  chamber  of  the  palace  known 
as  the  king's  gate.  Telling  the  momentous  secret  to 
Esther,  she  warned  the  king,  and  thus  saved  his  life,  the 
criminals  being  hanged. 

There  was  still  danger,  however,  to  both  Esther  and  her 
cousin,  from  another  quarter.  Among  the  dignitaries  at 
the  court  of  Susa  was  one  Haman,  according  to  Jewish 
tradition  an   Agagite — that   is,    of  the   royal   race   of  the 

>  ^ueti,  p.  1)15.  »  Esth.  ii.  1-14.  »  Justi  says  B.C.  47> 


QUEEN    ESTKlilR.  461 

Amalekites  * — the  bitterest  enemies  of  the  Jews.*  He  held 
the  great  post  of  Grand  Vizier,  or  First  Minister  of  the 
empire,  but  he  had  a  secret  trouble  which  fretted  him, 
even  in  so  grand  a  position.  From  some  reason — probably 
Haman's  nationality,  or,  perhaps,  because  to  cast  himself 
on  the  earth  before  him  seemed  like  paying  Divine  honour 
to  a  mortal — Mordecai  refused  to  pay  this  homage  to  the 
haughty  magnate  as  he  entered  and  left  the  palace.  This 
affront  was  so  bitterly  resented,  that  nothing  would  satisfy 
the  Vizier's  fury  but  the  destruction  of  all  the  race  to 
which  his  enemy  belonged.  At  one  sweep  he  would 
avenge  his  own  personal  grudge,  and  quench  the  hereditary 
feud  of  his  race,  in  the  blood  of  the  whole  brood  of  the 
hated  Jews.  Insinuating  to  Xerxes  that  they  were  danger- 
ous, as  a  people  who,  unlike  the  other  subject  races  of  the 
empire,  insisted  on  observing  their  own  laws  rather  than 
those  of  the  king,  and  thus  formed  a  ready  centre  for  re- 
volt, he  obtained  leave  to  arrange  for  their  massacre,  every- 
where, throughout  the  empire,  recommending  his  pro- 
posal by  promising  a  vast  sum '  to  the  treasury  from  their 
wealth."  Fear  and  greed  easily  won  the  despot  to  the  plot. 
The  proposed  victims  and  their  property  were  made  over  to 
Haman  ;  as  if  the  slaughter  and  pillage  of  .a  people  were  a 
matter  to  be  settled  by  a  light  word.  To  arm  him  with 
the  requisite  authority,  he  was  forthwith  entrusted   with 

»  Esth.  iii.  1.    Num.  xxiv.  7.    1  Sam.  xv.    Jos.,  Atit.,  XI.  vi.  5. 

'  In  the  Greek  version  he  is  called  in  one  place  a  Macedonian  (Esth.  1.  19;  ix.  24), 
the  Syrian  Greeks  being  the  deadly  enemies  of  the  Jews  when  that  version  was 
made.  The  name  Agagite  may  thus  only  mean  hater  of  the  Jews.  Elsewhere  in  the 
same  version  he  is  called  Bugaeus  (ix.  10),  and  Gogaeus  (iii.  1),  names  which  are  not 
readily  explained.  The  names  "  Hamau "  and  "  Hammedatha "  seem  to  be 
Persian. 

»  Esth.  iJi.  9. 

•  Prideaux,  Connection,  p.  -153,  says  it  was  equal  to  £2,000,000,  a  huge  sum  in  those 
d*f  B.    Bertheau  thinks  it  was  equal  to  nearly  £4,000,000.    Uas  B.  Ester,  p.  821. 


463  QUEEN^  ESTHER. 

the  royal  signet  ring/  all  commands  sealed  with  which  car- 
ried the  weight  of  imperial  orders.  Lots,  drawn  daily  by 
Haman  to  find  a  fortnnate  day  for  the  massacre,  fell  on 
the  13th  of  the  month  Adar — nearly  our  March.  He  had, 
no  doubt,  tried  each  day  of  the  year,  which  began  with 
Nisan,  but,  as  it  happened,  he  had  to  go  on  from  the  day 
on  which  it  began  to  the  eleventh  of  the  last  month,  before 
the  lot,  drawn  according  to  the  rules  of  such  matters, 
shewed  that  he  had  reached  the  day  supposed  to  be  pro- 
pitious. Nearly  a  whole  year  would  thus  pass,  from  the 
day  on  which  the  lots  were  drawn,  before  the  fatal  one 
came  on  which  they  fell.  This  interval  saved  the  Jews, 
and  ruined  Haman.  His  toilsome  enquiries  at  the  gods,  by 
magic  rites,  by  invoking  the  dead,  and  by  all  the  other 
forms  of  ghostly  spells,  had  come  to  no  more  than  this  ! 

Eoyal  posts  had  been  established  throughout  the  empire 
by  Cyrus  the  Great — fresh  riders  hurrying  along  all  the 
chief  roads,  and  changing  horses  every  fourteen  miles.'' 
A  decree  having  been  drawn  up  by  Haman  to  his  own  satis- 
faction, the  government  clerks — of  whom,  as  in  our  own 
Foreign  Office,  there  were  some  able  to  write  every  language 

>  The  absolnte  despotism  of  the  Persian  kings  is  well  shewn  in  the  following 
lines  :—"  The  will  of  the  ruler  is  the  will  of  the  godhead."  "Well  spoken!  The 
true  Persian  rejoices  to  be  allowed  to  kiss  the  hand  of  his  ruler,  even  if  it  be  stained 
with  his  child's  blood."  "  Cambyses  has  put  my  brother  to  death,  but  I  murmur  at 
him  for  it  no  more  than  I  did  at  the  godhead,  who  took  my  parents  from  me." 
Ebers,  ^gypt.  Konigstochter,  vol.  ii.  p.  122.  ^schylus  {Pers.,  644),  calls  the  Great 
King  "  Persia's  Susa-born  God." 

2  Four  parasangs.  Bertheau.  Persian  caravanserais  or  guest-houses  for  travellers, 
which  were  like  our  post-stations,  owed  their  origin  to  the  great  Cyrus,  who  sought 
to  abridge  the  vast  distances  of  his  world-wide  empire  by  well-kept  roads.  He  had 
also  established  a  regular  system  of  posts.  At  every  station,  the  postman  carrying 
the  mails  found  a  second  ready  to  start  on  a  fresh  horse,  on  which,  after  receiving 
the  mail-bag,  he  sprang  forward  like  the  wind,  to  hand  his  charge  to  a  third  postman 
at  the  next  station.  These  couriers  were  called  Angaroi,  and  were  believed  to  be  the 
swiftest  riders  in  the  world.  Ebers,  ^g.  Konigstochter^  vol.  ii.  p.  6.  Robinson,  Lex. 
8.  ▼.  dyyapeww. 


QUEEi^   ESTHER.  463 

spoken  in  the  hundred  and  twenty-seven  provinces  of  che 
empire — soon  furnished  copies  enough  for  the  chief  func- 
tionaries of  the  provinces,  and  with  these  the  posts  flew 
along  every  line  of  travel.  All  the  Jews  were  to  be  every 
where  killed  on  the  day  named,  and  their  property  seized 
for  the  king. 

But  Mordecai  was  destined  to  counteract  this  deadly  plot. 
Having  heard  of  it,  he  forsook  his  office  in  the  king^s  gate, 
and  clothing  himself  in  sackcloth — liis  head  strewn  with 
ashes — stood  in  the  open  space  before  the  palace  gate,  wail- 
ing aloud,  and  spreading  the  news  among  his  people.  He 
could  not  enter  the  palace  bounds  while  in  mourning,  but 
he  came  as  near  as  he  could,  that  Esther  might  see  or  hear 
him,  or  have  word  carried  to  her.  Nor  would  he  put  on 
robes  sent  out  to  him  by  Esther,  to  enable  him  to  enter ; 
the  reason  being  soon,  however,  conveyed  to  her  by  one  of 
the  eunuchs  of  her  apartments.  Lamentation  and  misery 
soon  filled  every  Jewish  household,  far  and  near.  In  Susa, , 
itself,  the  community  was  distracted.  The  only  hope  for 
the  race  lay  in  Esther.  Could  she  venture  into  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Grreat  King,  and  tell  the  whole  story  ?  To  go 
into  his  inner  hall,  uninvited,  was  death,  unless  he  stretched 
out  his  golden  sceptre  to  the  intruder.  She  had  not  as  yet 
revealed  her  nationality,  but  it  must  now  be  disclosed. 
Would  she  risk  all,  to  save  her  people  ?  Her  answer  be- 
came a  high-souled  Jewish  maiden.  If  those  in  Susa  would 
fast  for  three  days,  praying  for  her,  slie  would  do  the  same 
for  herself,  and  afterwards  venture  her  life  for  her  race. 

Success  attended  such  self-devotion.  Xerxes  received 
Esther  graciously.  He  would  give  her  anything  she  wished, 
to  the  half  of  his  kingdom.*     But  all  she  asked  was,  tha^ 

*  Mark  visa. 


464  QUEEN   ESTHER. 

he  and  Haman  should  come  and  drink  wine  with  her.  Her 
heart  failed  her,  however,  when  thej  came,  and  she  had  to 
invite  them  to  a  second  banquet  next  day.  That  he  should 
be  thus  honoured  seemed  to  Ilaman  to  brim  the  cup  of  his 
prosperity.  The  wealth  to  be  got  from  the  massacre  was 
immense  ;  he  had  ten  sons  and  he  was  Grand  Vizier  of  the 
empire!  Above  all,  he  had  been  in^'lted  by  Esther,  the 
queen,  to  come,  with  Xerxes  himself,  to  a  banquet  given 
to  the  two  only.  Yet  all  this  was  notliing  while  Mordecai 
refused  to  bow  before  him. 

''  Let  a  huge  pole  be  set  up — seventy  feet  high,"  cried 
Zeresh,  his  wife,  and  a  group  of  his  friends,  '^  and  ask 
Xerxes  to-morrow  for  leave  to  impale  the  Jew  on  it."  Not 
falling  down  before  the  representative  of  the  Great  King, 
was  treason  to  the  sovereign  himself  ! 

But  his  pride  was  near  its  fall.  Through  the  night, 
Xerxes  could  not  sleep.  Thoughts  of  his  escape  from  as- 
sassination by  the  two  chamberlains  troubled  him.  The 
annals  of  the  empire  must  be  brought,  to  recall  the  details. 
What  had  been  done  for  Mordecai,  who  had  saved  his  life  ? 
Nothing.  Almost  at  the  moment  when  this  was  discovered, 
Haman  entered  the  outer  hall  and  asked  an  audience,  hop- 
ing to  get  permission  to  impale  his  on.my.  Allowed  to 
enter,  he  was  met,  as  he  approached,  by  the  question  of 
Xerxes :  ^'  What  should  be  done  to  the  man  whom  the 
king  delighteth  to  honour?'^  Naturally  thinking  the 
question  referred  to  himself,  the  answer  was  easy.  ''  Let 
a  robe  of  state,  which  the  king  has  himself  worn,  be 
brought,  and  a  horse  on  which  the  king  has  ridden,  with 
its  royal  trappings,  especially  the  head  ornament  of  a  royal 
ciown  which  the  king's  charger  bears,*  and  let  one  of  the 
1  flstb.  vi.  & 


QUEEN"   ESTHER.  465 

noblest  princes  put  the  robe  on  the  fortunate  man,  and 
having  set  him  on  the  horse,  lead  him  through  Susa,  cry- 
ing aloud,  '  Tiius  shall  it  be  done  to  the  man  whom  the 
king  delights  to  honour  \''' 

What  this  meant  in  a  court  like  that  of  Persia  is  hard 
for  us  to  realize.  The  golden  ornaments,  the  robe  of  state, 
and  the  rest  of  the  attire  of  Artaxerxes,  the  successor  of 
Xerxes,  were  worth  10,000  talents,  a  sum  only  to  be  under- 
stood as  millions  of  pounds  sterling.'  The  royal  dress  of 
Xerxes  himself  was  reckoned  by  tlie  G-reeks  as  worth  12,000 
talents,  and  this  seems  not  to  have  been  an  excessive  valua- 
tion, when  we  read  the  details  of  the  dress  of  a  Shah  of 
Persia  even  in  the  present  century.  '^  He  was  one  blaze 
of  jewels,^'  says  Sir  Robert  Ker  Porter, '^  '^  which  literally 
dazzled  the  eyes.  A  high  three-fold  tiara  was  on  his  head, 
entirely  covered  with  diamonds,  pearls,  rubies,  and  emeralds, 
so  arranged  that  they  reflected  a  splendid  play  of  colours. 
Several  black  feathers,  apparently  of  the  heron,  were  stuck 
amidst  the  rows  of  diamonds,  their  tips  ornamented  with 
pear-shaped  pearls  of  extraordinary  size.  His  robe  was  of 
cloth  of  gold,  covered,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  same  way, 
with  precious  stones  and  pearls,  and  a  string  of  pearls,  per- 
haps the  largest  in  the  world,  hung  round  his  neck.  But 
his  armlets  and  girdle  surpassed  all,  for  they  blazed  in  the 
sun,  like  fire.  The  right  armlet  was  called  'the  Mountain 
of  Liglit,'  the  left,  '  the  Sea  of  Light,^  so  magnificent  were 
the  diamonds  in  it.''' 

In  splendour  like  this,  Mordecai,  set  on  the  king's 
charger  by  Haman,  rode  through  the  streets  of  Susa ; 
the  humbled  Agagite  proclaiming  before   his   enemy  the 

1  Jfrom  four  to  five  millions.    Plut.,  Artaxerxes,  24. 

2  Travels  (in  the  years  1817-1820),  quoted  by  Just),  p.  124. 


466  QUEEI^    ESTHER. 

royal  pleasure  that  such  honour  should  be  paid  him« 
The  vizier  felt  that  he  was  ruined.  At  the  banquet  of 
wine,  next  day,  matters  came  to  a  crisis.  Esther  openly 
accused  Haman,  before  the  king,  of  a  plot  to  destroy  her 
and  all  her  race.  Had  she  and  they  been  sold  as  slaves, 
she  said,  she  would  not  have  spoken,  for  such  an  injury 
was  not  great  enough  to  disturb  the  king  by  mentioning.' 
But  the  whole  race,  including  herself,  was  to  be  extermin- 
ated. Furious  at  the  disclosure,  Xerxes  rose  and  passed 
into  the  palace  garden.  Meanwhile,  Haman,  in  his  de- 
spair, threw  himself  at  the  foot  of  the  couch,  begging  his 
life.  But  this  only  hastened  his  destruction.  Caught  in 
this  attitude  by  the  infuriated  despot,  the  worst  motives 
were  not  too  bad  to  attribute  to  him.  An  order  for  his 
execution  was  instantly  given,  and  forthwith,  as  a  sign  of 
his  condemnation,  the  guards  in  attendance  covered  the 
victim's  head.  A  few  minutes  more,  and  he  Avas  impaled 
on  the  sharpened  top  of  the  great  flagstaff  he  had  prepared 
for  Mordecai,  who  was  now  made  grand  vizier  in  his 
place.  ^ 

It  was  imperative  instantly  to  counteract  the  decree  sent 
out  by  the  hapless  man.  Since  it  could  not  be  revoked, 
orders  were  despatched  to  every  part,  that  the  Jews  should 
stand  on  the  defensive,  at  the  time  of  their  projected  mas- 
sacre. A  civil  Avar  thus  broke  out  on  the  fatal  day,  but 
the  Jews  were  victorious  ;  75,000  of  their  assailants  falling 
throughout  the  empire,  besides  500  in  Susa  alone.  Among 
these  were  the  ten  sons  of  Haman. ^  ~No  attempt  at  plun- 
der was,  however,  anywhere  made  by  the  victors. 

1  Esth.  vii.  4. 

2  A  recent  traveller  saw  at  Teheran,  some  men  fixed  to  a  great  wooden  door  by 
coarse,  thick  wooden  pins  driven  through  their  bodies.  They  had  been  condemned, 
as  criminals,  though  possibly  only  victims  of  despotic  violence.  3  Esth.  ix.  12. 


QUEEN^   ESTHER.  467 

But  even  this  revenge  hardly  satisfied  Esther.  Another 
day's  slaughter  in  Susa,  in  which  300  men  fell,  was 
granted,  before  she  felt  at  ease  ;  and  the  bodies  of  Haman's 
sons  were,  at  her  request,  impaled  on  lower  stakes  round 
that  from  which  their  father  was  still  suspended.  It 
would  have  been  well  for  her  memory  had  she  been  more 
merciful. 

That  the  13th  Adar,  on  which  the  deliverance  was 
achieved,  and  the  14th,  on  which  Haman's  party  in  Susa 
was  finally  crushed,  should  be  kept  as  a  double  festivity, 
was  natural,  and  they  have  been  thus  observed  from  that 
time  to  this.  Even  in  the  text  of  the  Bible,  moreover,  the 
hatred  of  Haman  by  the  Jew  is  curiously  shewn,  in  the 
fact  that  the  names  of  his  ten  sons  are  written  in  perpen- 
dicular columns,  as  if  to  shew  that  they  were  impaled  one 
over  the  other  beneath  their  father.' 

Nine  years  later,  in  the  year  B.  c.  465,  Xerxes  was  mur- 
dered by  the  commandant  of  his  bodyguard  and  one  of 
his  chamberlains,  both  foreigners,  and  specially  trusted  as 
such  ;  ^  his  son  Artaxerxes,"  ^'^the  long-armed, '''  succeeding 
him  in  the  empire — a  mild,  weak  man,  controlled  by  his 
mother  and  his  sister  Amytis,  both  women  of  a  frivolous 
nature.  The  murderers  of  his  father  accused  his  brother 
Darius,  to  screen  themselves,  and  the  innocent  blood  of  the 
prince  stained  the  new  king's  accession,  but  the  assassins 
did  not  permanently  escape  detection  and  punishment. 

Over  seventy  years  had  elapsed  from  the  date  of  the 
Return  to  the  death  of  Xerxes.  Zerubbabel  had  died— 
possibly  in  Babylon,  where,  according  to  Jewish  tradition, 
he  was  honoured  as  '^Prince  of  the  Captivity."*     His  de- 

'  For  ihe  mode  in  which  the  feast  of  Purini  (the  Lots^  is  now  kept,  see  Geikie's 
Zi/e  and  Wards  of  ChHst,  vol.  1.  p.  225.  «  Justi,  p.  124.  3  B.C.  465-425 

Seder  Olain,  Ewald,  vol.  v.  p.  188.    Derembourg,  vol.  xx.  p.  21. 


468  QUEEN   ESTHER. 

scent  from  David  seems  to  have  been  made  a  pretext  by 
the  enemies  of  the  Jews  at  the  Persian  court  for  continu- 
ous agitation  against  the  enlarging  of  Jerusalem,  on  the 
ground  that  a  revolt  might  follow,  to  make  Zerubbabel 
actual  king.  It  may  be  that  this  led  to  his  return  to  Susa  ; 
but  whether  he  died  in  Jud^a  or  in  Persia,  he  left  behind 
a  daughter  and  two  sons,  whose  descendants  may  be  traced 
as  honourable  members  of  the  community  for  five  genera- 
tions.^ The  glory  of  the  house  of  David  sank,  however, 
finally  in  his  person  ;  its  members,  henceforth,  living  on 
in  obscurity.  Joshua,  the  high  priest,  who  seems  to  have 
been  in  some  measure  the  rival  of  his  civilian  colleague, 
apparently  succeeded  him  as  the  titular  head  of  the  Jewish 
colony  ;  but,  resembling  Zerubbabel  in  having  little  force 
of  character,  like  him  he  failed  to  impress  his  influence  on 
the  age.  The  nominal  rule  in  Jerusalem  appears  to  have 
been  left  in  his  hands,  with  the  sheiks  of  clans  and  the 
elders  as  his  councillors  ;  but  the  real  authority  remained 
with  the  Persian  governor  ^  of  the  district,  who,  either  per- 
sonally or  by  his  deputy,  took  up  his  residence  from  time 
to  time  in  the  tower  or  castle  Baris,  which  stood  at  the 
north-west  edge  of  the  Temple  precincts,  and  thus  over- 
awed both  Temple  and  town. 

The  harsh  rejection  of  the  Samaritan  overtures  to  aid  in 
rebuilding  the  Temple,  had  borne  bitter  fruit.  The  strug- 
gle had  ended  in  the  triumph  of  the  Jewish  colony,  so  far 
as  the  sanctuary  itself  was  concerned  ;  but  the  decrees  of 
Cyrus  and  Darius  had  not  included  joermission  to  restore 
or  fortify  Jerusalem.  A  constant  opportunity  for  intrigue 
at  tlie  Persian  courts  was  thus  always  ready  to  the  Samari- 
tans, Idumseans,  and  others,  Avhose  animosity  to  the  Jews 

i  Ewald,  vol.  V.  p.  132.     Graetz,  vol.  ii.  pp.  2,  115.  2  Neh.  vii.  5  .j  v.  15. 


QUEEN    ESTHER.  4G9 

grew  continually  more  embittered.  An  illustration  of 
this  yet  survives/  in  a  letter  to  the  court  of  Susa,  written 
during  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes,  by  the  Persian  officials  of 
Samaria,  in  their  own  name  and  in  that  of  their  subjects. 
Similar  communications  had  been  forwarded  during  this 
and  the  preceding  reign,  but  the  result  in  their  case  is 
not  stated.'  In  the  one  quoted,  two  Persian  dignitaries — 
Rehum,  the  king's  councillor,  and  his  secretary,  write  in 
behalf  of  the  descendants  of  the  heathen  settlers  brousrht 
to  the  country  by  Asnapper — perhaps  the  general  of  Esar- 
haddon,  or  possibly  another  name  for  that  monarch,  him- 
self.' They  complain  that  the  Jews  were  rebuilding  the 
city  and  walls  of  Jerusalem,  with  a  view  to  refusing 
tribute,  and  revolting  from  the  Great  King.  Such  a  docu- 
ment was  well  fitted  to  disturb  a  court  so  familiar  with 
rebellions,  especially  in  the  past  history  of  the  Jews,  and 
caused  the  immediate  prohibition  of  all  further  work,  at 
least  on  the  fortifications." 

Still  the  new  community  made  some  progress.  Houses, 
better  and  worse,  were  raised  ;  the  high  priest  lived  in  a 
mansion  suitable  to  his  dignity,  within  the  Temple  j^re- 
cincts  ;  *  trade  increased  ;  a  larger  population  circulated 
through  the  half-restored  streets.  Ebers,  in  one  of  his 
charming  books,  introduces  a  Jew  as  buying  horses  in 
Egypt  for  Zerubbabel ; '  Phoenician  fishermen  had  stalls  in 

-  Ezra  iv.  7,  23.  This  fraj^ment  is  clearly  inserted  out  oF  its  place.  AH  critics 
a£?ree  in  this. 

2  Ezra  iv.  6.  The  chronicler  states  that  the  copy  of  the  letter  seen  by  him  was 
written  with  Aramaic  letters,  and  translated  into  Aramaic  ;  the  Jewish  community 
using  the  Hebrew.  Ezra  iv.  0,  mentions  a  letter  written  in  the  reign  of  Xerxes  ;  ver. 
7,  one  written  in  that  of  Artaxerxes  ;  and  ver.  8,  a  third.  The  long  list  of  places 
mentioned  m  Ezra  iv.  9,  as  part  of  those  from  which  people  had  been  transplanted 
to  Samaria,  shews  how  very  mixed  the  population  of  the  Northern  Kingdom  must, 
to  a  large  extent,  have  become,  in  the  end.  ^  gge  vol.  iv.  pp.  -^Ht,  If. 

*  Between  B.C.  46,5  and  b.c.  459.  •  Neb.  iii.  20. 

•^  jEyypt.  Konigsioc/Uert  vol.  i.  p.  IS. 


470  QUEEN"   ESTHER. 

Jerusalem  for  their  catch,  and  traders  from  Tyre,  booths 
for  their  wares. '  The  guilds  of  the  goldsmiths  and  of  the 
apothecaries  were  re-established;^  carpenters  and  lock- 
smiths had  their  workshops  ; "  masons,  of  course,  were  a 
numerous  craft,  and  other  traders  of  various  kinds  found 
occupation."  The  country  round,  moreover,  was  well  cul- 
tivated, and  supplied  the  market  with  ass-loads  of  wine, 
grapes,  figs,  grain,  and  other  growth  of  the  field  or  gar- 
den.^ 

The  spirits  of  the  colony  were,  however,  far  from  hope- 
ful. They  had  expected  a  vast  influx  of  their  brethren, 
from  Babylon  and  other  lands,  but  had  been  to  a  great 
extent  disappointed.  There  was  no  sign,  as  yet,  of  the 
wealth  of  the  Gentiles  being  poured  into  their  treasuries, 
as  had  been  promised  by  Haggai  and  the  other  prophets.** 
On  the  contrary,  the  walls  of  their  city  lay  in  ruins,  and 
the  rubbish  of  the  houses  destroyed  by  Nebuchadnezzar 
more  than  a  hundred  years  before,  still  rose  in  long-stretch- 
ing mounds.  Their  subjection  to  Persia  forced  itself  on 
the  citizens  at  every  turn.  The  tribute  imposed  on  them 
was  a  heavy  burden  to  a  poor  community.  In  addition  to 
this,  the  establishments  of  the  Persian  governors  were 
maintained  by  requisitions  of  bread,  wine,  and  money, 
from  town  and  country,  and  even  subordinates  and  their 
servants  lorded  it  over  the  people  at  large.''  Jewish  recruits 
had  doubtless  been  forced  into  the  Persian  armies,  for  all 
the  nations  of  the  empire  had  to  contribute  their  propor- 
tion to  the  vast  hosts  of  the  Great  King.  Cambyses  and 
Xerxes  had  both  invaded  Egypt,  ^  passing  through  Pales- 
tine, and  the  invasion  must  have  seriously  affected  Judah. 


1  Neh.  xiii.  15. 

2  Neh.  iii.  8,  31,32. 

3  Neh.  iii.  6. 

*  Neh.  iii.  32. 

s  Neh.  xiii.  15. 

«  Hag.  ii.  7. 

'  Neh.  V.  15. 

8  B.C.  525,  B.C.  484. 

QUEEN    ESTHER.  '  471 

The  Jewish  colony  had  hoped  for  great  things  from  Zeriib- 
babel,  as  a  descendant  of  David,  but  he  had  done  little  to 
help  them,  and  with  his  death,  the  long-honoured  royal 
line  had  sunk  out  of  sight.  Phoenicia  had  risen,  while 
they  continued  prostrate,  and  boasted  its  kings,'  as,  in- 
deed, did  even  the  cities  of  Philistia.*  Damascus  was  the 
seat  of  a  Persian  official,  superior  to  the  local  governor 
set  over  Judah.  All  the  ancient  enemies  of  the  nation 
seemed  to  prosper,  while  Jerusalem  was  still  j^artly  in 
ruins. 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  prophet  Zechariah,  now 
an  old  man,  once  more  came  forward  to  cheer  his  con- 
temporaries. His  style  of  address  had  changed  with  the 
altered  state  of  affairs.  Lands  which  belonged  to  Israel 
by  Divine  covenant,'  and  over  which  David  and  Solomon 
had  ruled,  were  held  by  the  alien.*  The  seer  cared  little 
for  the  regions  not  promised  in  the  Law,  and  leaves  them 
unnoticed.*  Judah  would  see  the  judgments  of  God  on 
the  nations  who  held  her  ancient  boundaries,  and  they 
would  be  taught,  in  the  end,  to  seek  Jehovah,  whom  they 
had  so  long  offended. 

"IX.  1.  The  utterance  of  Jehovah," — he  says — has  gone  forth 
against  Hadrach  (near  Damascus),  and  will  rest  on  Damascus;  for 
Jehovah  has  His  eyes  on  all  men,  and  also  on  the  children  of  Israel, 
2.  and  on  Hamath  also,  (at  the  Orontes),  and  on  Tyre  and  Sidon — wise 

»  Herod.,  viii.  67.  '  Zech.  ix.  8. 

3  Gen.  XV.  18.    Exod.  xxiii.  31.    Num.  xxxiv.  1-13. 

*  Syria.  Phoenicia,  and  Philistia. 

*  Edoni,  Moab,  Amnion.    Deut.  ii.  4,  5,  9,  19. 

*  Zech.  ix.  1,  2.  Reufs,  like  a  number  of  recent  critics,  assigns  Zech.  Ix.-xl.  to 
the  time  when  both  Israel  and  Judah  were  still  nations,  "with  their  kings  and  idols, 
and  vain  trust  in  future  victorious  wara  of  revenge."  He  explains  allusions  to  the  re- 
turn of  exiles  by  the  fact  that  Joel  and  Amos  had  already  promised  the  same  thing, 
and  lays  weight  on  Greece,  Egypt,  and  Assyria  having  to  give  up  their  captives,  while 
there  is  no  mention  of  Babylon,  or  any  trace  of  post-exilic  affairs.  Gtsch.  de.  Alt. 
Test.,%ZH. 


472  QUEEN"   ESTHER. 

though  she  think  herself.  3.  Tyre,  indeed,'  built  herself  a  fortress 
and  heaped  up  silver  like  dust,  and  gold  like  the  mire  of  the  streets. 
4.  But  Jehovah  will  impoverish  her,  and  smite  her  sea-power,  and 
burn  her  with  fire.  5.  Ashkelon  will  see  this  and  fear;  Gaza  also, 
and  will  writhe  in  terror ;  Ekron  will  behold  it  and  her  hopes  be  put 
to  shame.  And  its  king  will  perish  from  Gaza,  and  Ashkelon  will  be 
uninhabited.  C.  A  mongrel  people  will  dwell  at  Ashdod,  and  Jehovah 
will  cut  off  the  pride  of  the  Philistines.  7.  (They  eat  the  blood  with 
the  flesh) — but  He  will  take  it  out  of  their  mouth,  and  their  (unclean) 
abominations  from  between  their  teeth.  Yet  the  remnant  that  escapes 
(these  judgments)  will  join  themselves  to  Him,  and  the  head  of  this 
remnant  will  be  like  the  chief  of  a  *  thousand  '  ^  in  Judah,  and  Ekron 
(will  be  to  Israel)  as  the  old  Jebusites  (were  to  the  people  of  Jerusalem 
— incorporated  with  them  and  subject  to  them)."  8.  And  I  (says  Jeho- 
vah) will  pitch  a  camp  round  My  House,  (against  hostile  attacks),  that 
none  pass  through  or  return  (to  injure  it) ;  no  oppressor  will  assail  it  * 
any  more,  for  I  have  now  looked  into  it  with  Mine  eyes." 

Not  only  will  Jehovah  protect  His  House ;  He  will 
cause  the  Messianic-  king  to  appear  in  Jerusalem,  and 
thence  spread  the  reign  of  Peace  over  the  world. 

*'  9.  Rejoice  greatly,  O  daughter  of  Zion  ;  shout,  0  daughter  of 
Jerusalem;  behold,  thy  king  will  come  to  thee:  he  is  righteous  and 
brings  victory;  lowly,  and  riding  on  an  ass,  on  a  colt  the  foal  of  a 
she-ass  *  (tlie  beast  ridden  by  Jewish  kings).  10.  And  I  will  destroy 
(all  signs  of  war) — the  chariot  from  Ephraim  and  the  horse  from  Jeru- 
salem, and  the  war-bow  shall  be  destroyed;  and  he  will  speak  peace  to 
the  r.ations,  and  his  dominion  will  be  from  sea  to  sea  * — and  from  the 
river  (Euphrates)  to  the  ends  of  the  earth." 

Israel  will  be  delivered  out  of  bondage  in  all  lands,  and 
will  be  victorious  over  the  heathen. 

1  Zech.  ix.  3-10.  •  A  clan,  or  subdivision  of  a  tribe. 

'  2  Sam.  xxiv.  16.    1  Chron.  xxi.  15. 

*  Literally,  "them.'" 

s  Bovet's  Egypt,  etc.,  p.  273.  The  Rabbis,  commenting  on  this  text,  say  that  the 
a«6  will  be  one  of  a  hundred  colours.    Barclay's  Talmud,  p.  36. 

«  An  indefinite  expression.  The  seas  known  to  the  Hebrews  were  the  Caspian, 
the  Persian  Gulf,  the  Black  Sea,  and  the  Mediterranean. 


QUEEN  ESTHER.  473 

*'  11.  As  to  thee  also,  (0  Israel); '  because  of  the  blood  of  thy  cove- 
nant (made  by  Me  with  thee),  I  will  bring  thy  captives  from  their 
dungeon  in  the  dry  underground  cistern.  12.  Turn  back  to  the 
stronghold,  ye  prisoners  of  hope!  Even  to-day  I  declare  that  I  will 
repay  thee  double  (joy,  for  all  your  sorrow),  13.  for  I  will  bend  Judah 
for  Me  (as  a  bow),  I  will  make  Ephraim  (My  arrow  with  which)  to  fill 
it,  and  I  will  raise  up  thy  sons,  0  Zion,  against  thy  sons,  0  Greece,'^ 
and  make  thee  as  the  sword  of  a  mighty  warrior.  14.  And  Jehovah 
will  appear  over  them,  and  Plis  arrow  will  shoot  forth  like  the  light- 
ning, and  the  Lord  Jehovah  will  blow  the  trumpet,  and  will  march 
amidst  the  storms  of  the  south, ^  (from  the  desert,  from  Sinai,  His 
ancient  seat).  15.  Jehovah  of  Hosts  will  protect  His  people,  and  they 
will  devour  (their  enemies  before  them),  and  hurl  them  away  like  sling 
stones,  and  they  will  drink  (the  blood  of  the  slain)  till  they  shout  as  if 
drunk  with  wine,  and  they  shall  be  filled  (with  blood)  as  the  bowls  (of 
the  altar  are),  or  as  its  corners  (on  which  the  blood  is  sprinkled).  16. 
And  Jehovah,  their  God,  will  save  His  people  on  that  day,  as  a  shep- 
herd saves  his  flock,  for  they  are  to  Him  like  jewels  of  a  crown,  glitter- 
ing over  His  land!  17.  For  how  great  is  their  goodliness,  how  great 
is  their  beauty  (through  the  blessing  of  Jehovah) !  (Rich  harvests  of) 
corn  will  make  the  young  men  cheerful,*  and  new  wine  the  maidens." 

God  is  the  one  source  of  prosperity  ;  the  idols  are  vanity  : 
He  will  save  His  people  in  all  their  tribes. 

*' X.  1.  Pray  to  Jehovah  for  rain  in  the  spring-time!  Pray  to 
Jehovah  who  creates  the  lightnings,  and  He  will  give  rich  showers, 
and  grass  in  every  one's  field.  2.  For  the  teraphim  ^ — (the  house- 
gods) — have  spoken  vanity,  and  the  diviners  have  lying  visions  and 
tell  false  dreams,  and  give  no  comfort.  Hence  the  people  went  astray 
like  a  flock,  and  were  in  trouble,  because  there  was  no  shepherd.  3. 
My  anger  is  kindled  against  the  shepherds,  and  I  will  punish  the  bell- 
goats,*  for  Jehovah  of  Hosts  cares  for  His  flock,  the  House  of  Judah, 
and  makes  it  like  His  goodly  horse  in  tlie  battle.     4.  Out  of  Judah 

'  Zech.  ix.  11-17  ;  x.  1-4.  "  Hebrew  "  Javan"  =  Ionia. 

3  The  most  terrible  tempests  (Isa,  xsi.  1  ;  Hos.  xiii.  15),  often  accompanied  with 
dreadful  sand  whirlwinds,  like  those  that  overwhelmed  part  of  the  army  of  Cam- 
bj'ses.  *  '*  Flourish,"  Keil. 

*  See  illustration,  p.  4^.  As  already  noticed,  "  teraphim ''  and  "  diviners  "  eeeno 
to  speak  of  the  time  before  the  Exile. 

•  Vol.  iv.  p.  42i  ;  vol.  v.  p.  308. 


474  QUEEK  ESTHER. 

shall  come  forth  the  corner-stone,  out  of  him  the  tent-peg,  out  of  him 
the  battle-bow,  out  of  Him  every  governor. '  5.  And  the  men  of  Judah 
shall  be  as  heroes,  treading  down  the  enemy  in  the  battle,  like  the  mire 
of  the  streets,  and  they  will  fight,  because  Jehovah  is  with  them,  and 
the  riders  on  horses  will  be  put  to  shame. ^  6.  And  I  will  make  the 
house  of  Judah  strong,  and  I  will  save  the  house  of  Joseph,  and  make 
them  dwell  once  more  (in  their  own  land),  for  I  have  had  pity  on  them, 
and  they  shall  be  as  if  I  had  not  cast  them  off,  for  I  am  Jehovah  their 
God  and  will  hear  them.  7.  And  Ephraim  will  be  like  a  mighty  man, 
and  liis  heart  will  rejoice  as  with  wine,  and  his  children  will  see  it  and 
be  glad;  their  heart  will  rejoice  in  Jehovah.  8.  I  will  hiss  for  them 
(as  a  bee-master  hisses  to  draw  to  him  a  swarm),  and  will  gather  them, 
for  I  have  redeemed  them,  and  they  shall  be  as  numerous  again  as  of 
old.  9.  I  have  sown  them  among  the  peoples,  but  they  will  remember 
Me  in  far  countries,  and  return  with  their  children  with  whom  they 
have  lived.  10.  And  I  will  bring  them  back  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt, 
and  gather  them  out  of  Assyria,^  and  I  will  bring  them  into  the  land  of 
Gilead  and  Lebanon,  till  room  be  wanting  for  them.  11.  And  Jeho- 
vah shall  pass  through  the  Sea  of  Affliction  (as  through  the  Red  Sea, 
of  old),  and  shall  smite  down  the  waves  of  the  sea,  and  dry  up  the 
deeps  of  the  Nile,  and  the  pride  of  Assyria  *  will  be  brought  down, 
and  the  sceptre  of  Egypt  will  depart  from  it.  And  I  will  make  them 
strong  in  Jehovah,  and  they  will  walk  in  His  name,  says  Jehovah." 

Unfortunately,  the  future  history  of  Israel  did  not  real- 
ize the  conditions  required  for  the  fulfilment  of  these 
promises.  The  national  life  continued  corrupt  and  un- 
godly. Lawless  and  tyrannical  rulers  still  destroyed  the 
common  people — the  flock  of  Jehovah — and  the  end  of 
this  was   terrible  ruin.     Zechariah  introduces   this   result 

J  Eichhorn  translates  these  lines  :  "Out  of  Him  shall  come  those  who  are  at  the 
head,— the  under  leaders,— those  who  shoot  with  the  bow  in  battle,"  etc.  Zech.. 
X.  5-11. 

2  Moses  did  not  allow  cavalry  in  the  Jewish  army.  It  would  have  been  of  little 
use  in  a  highland  district  like  that  held  by  the  Twelve  Tribes. 

3  Many  Jews  were  doubtless  still  in  Assyria. 

*  Assyria  is  often  used  in  connection  with  the  Persian  kings  of  Babylon.  In  Ezra 
vi.  22,  the  king  of  Persia  is  called  the  king  of  Assyria.  Yet  Nineveh,  and,  with  it, 
the  Assyrian  empire,  had  fallen  more  than  twenty  years  before  Judah  was  led  off  to 
Babylon.  This  shews  how  very  hard  it  is  to  assign  a  date  to  utterances  so  figurative, 
and  so  capable  of  different  explanations. 


QUEEN   ESTHER.  475 

abruptly,  in  the  opening  of  the  eleventh  chapter,  painting 
a  catastrophe  that  was  repeated  more  than  once,  by  the 
Greeks,  Syrians,  and  Romans,  in  following  centuries. 

"XL  1.  Open  thy  gates,  0  Lebanon,'  that  fire  may  devour  thy 
cedars."  2.  Howl,  0  cypress,  for  the  cedar  is  fallen!  the  glorious 
trees  are  destroyed !  Howl,  0  ye  oaks  of  Bashan,  (for  your  fate  is 
sealed),  since  even  the  inaccessible  (mountain)  forests  (of  Lebanon)  are 
laid  low!  3.  The  loud  cries  of  the  shepherds  ascend,  for  the  grazing 
places  which  are  their  glory  are  laid  waste.  Hark !  one  hears  the  roar- 
ing of  young  lions,  for  the  thickets  of  Jordan,  their  haunts,  are 
destroyed."' 

The  loving  care  of  Jehovah  for  His  people,  oppressed  by 
their  rulers,  is  shewn  in  His  committing  them  to  the  care 
of  the  prophet,  as  a  type  of  the  Anointed  One  to  come. 
He  seeks  to  guide  them  with  a  shepherd's  rod  called 
Favour,  and  lead  them  in  the  paths  of  right.  But  their 
moral  perversity  makes  him  at  last  hopeless,  so  that  he 
substitutes  a  staff  which  he  calls  Union,  the  meaning  of 
which  he  afterwards  explains.  Love  would  be  tried  first  ; 
punishment  would  follow,  when  love  failed  to  win  them. 


"4.  Thus  spake  Jehovah,  my  God:  Feed  the  flock  doomed  to 
death,  5.  whose  buyers  slaughter  them  and  feel  no  sense  of  guilt,  and 
whose  sellers  say,  '  Blessed  be  Jehovah,  I  am  growing  rich,'  and  whose 
own  shepherds  do  not  pity  them.  6.  For  I  (Jehovah)  will  no  more 
pity  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  (the  oppressors  of  My  flock,  the  peo- 
ple among  whom  it  dwells),  says  Jehovah,  but,  lo,  I  will  give  them  up, 
every  one  into  the  hand  of  his  neighbour,  and  into  the  hand  of  his 
king,  and  they  will  smite  the  land,  and  I  will  not  save  them  out  of 
their  hand." 

1  Zech.  xi.  1-6. 

'  Bleek  and  some  others  refer  this  passage  to  the  invasion  by  Tiglath  Pileser,  anfl 
think  the  prophecy  dates  from  the  age  of  Ahaz.  But  this  idea  is  rejected  by  Ewald 
and  Hitzig,  nor  is  it  tenable,  since  the  invasion  referred  to,  though,  like  all  others, 
it  came  from  the  north,  did  not  waste  the  southern  Jordan  as  this  did.  See  vol.  Iv. 
p.  274.  3  Vol.  ii.  p.  438. 


476  QUEEN-   ESTHER. 

The  prophet  next  describes  his  feeding  of  the  flock,  but 
he  speaks,  not  for  himself,  but  for  the  chief  shepherd,  or 
ruler,  hereafter  to  appear. 

•*  7.  And  I  fed  the  flock  doomed  to  death,*  the  poor  of  the  flock,  and 
took  two  shepherd's  staves ;  one  I  called  Favour,  the  other  I  called 
Union.  And  T  fed  the  flock.  8.  And  I  destroyed  three  of  the  shep- 
herds in  one  month, ^  for  My  soul  was  impatient  of  them  and  theirs 
abhorred  Me.  9.  Then  I  said,  '  I  will  feed  you  no  longer;  what  dies 
may  die,  what  is  killed  may  be  so ;  as  to  the  survivors,  let  each  eat  the 
flesh  of  the  other.'  10.  And  I  took  my  staff  'Favour,'  and  broke  it 
across,  to  break  My  covenant  which  I  had  made  with  all  peoples,  (not 
to  injure  Israel).  11.  And  it  was  broken  across  on  the  same  day,  and 
thus  the  poor  of  the  flock,  who  marked  what  I  did,  knew  that  it  was 
the  word  of  Jehovah. 

"13.  And  I  said  to  them  (the  flock — not  the  poor  of  it  only):  '  If  ye 
think  well,  give  me  my  wages,  and  if  not,  withhold  them.'  And  they 
weighed  out  to  me  as  my  wages,  thirty  pieces  of  silver.^  13.  Then 
said  Jehovah  to  me:  '  Cast  it  to  the  potter; ^  it  is  a  goodly  price  (indeed) 
at  which  I  have  been  valued  by  them ! '  So  I  took  the  thirty  pieces 
of  silver,  and  cast  them  to  the  potter,^  in  the  House  of  Jehovah. 

■**14.  Then  1  broke  in  two  my  other  staff,  'Union,'  to  break  the 
brotherhood  between  Judah  and  Israel." 

Having  driven  the  good  shepherd,  by  its  wickedness,  to 

»  Zech.  xi.  7-14. 

'  The  three  shepherds  cut  off  in  one  month  have  been  variously  supposed  to  be 
the  kings  Zechariah,  ShalUim,  and  Menahem,  of  the  Ten  Tribes  ;  the  three  kings 
Antiochus  Epiphanes,  Antiochus  Enpator,  and  Demetrius  I. ;  and  the  three  empires, 
the  Babylonian,  the  Medo-Persian,  and  Macedonian.  It  seems  most  reasonable  to 
accept  the  first  theory,  from  the  historical  facts  of  the  case  ;  for  the  others  either  re- 
quire the  "  month  "  to  be  taken  as  a  prophetic  month  of  thirty  days,  each  of  seven 
years'  duration,  or  as  a  general  term  for  an  indefinite  period.  Dr.  Pusey  thinks  the 
three  kings  mean  the  "priests,  judges,  and  lawyers,"  who,  having  crucified  Christ, 
were  destroyed  in  one  month,  Nisan,  a.d.  33.  But  how  he  makes  this  out  is  inex- 
plicable to  me. 

3  Thirty  shekels  were  the  price  of  a  slave  accidentally  killed  (Exod.  xxi.  32) ;  and 
also  that  for  which  a  slave  could  be  bought  (Hos.  iii.  2).  For  reference  to  this  pas- 
sage, see  Matt,  xxvii.  9,  10. 

4  The  Targum,  Kimchi,  and  Gesenius  read,  "the  treasurer."  The  Peshito, 
De  Welte,  Ewald,  and  Hitzig,  read  "into  the  treasury."  The  change  is  made  by 
substituting  an  Aleph  for  a  Yodin  the  Hebrew  word. 

'  To  "cast  anything  to  the  potter,"  seems  to  have  been  a  proverbial  expression  foi 
treating  with  contempt. 


QUEEN   ESTHER.  477 

give  up  his  office  as  shepherd,  Israel  is  committed   to  a 
shepherd  who  leads  it  to  ruin. 

"15.  And  Jehovah  said  to  rae,  Take  to  thee  the  outfit  of  a  worth- 
less' shepherd,  16.  for,  lo,  I  will  raise  up  a  shepherd  in  the  land,  who 
will  care  nothing  for  those  that  are  perishing,  and  will  not  seek  the 
scattered  ones,  or  heal  that  which  is  wounded,  or  feed  that  which  is 
sound,  but  will  eat  the  flesh  of  the  fat,  tearing  even  their  feet  to 
pieces.  17.  Woe  to  the  worthless  shepherd,  who  leaves  the  flock! 
The  sword  shall  come  on  his  arm,  and  pierce  his  right  eye;  his  arm 
shall  be  withered,  and  his  eye  put  out !  " 

The  last  part  of  the  prophecies  of  Zechariah  is  as  dark 
aud  enigmatical  as  the  rest  of  the  Book,  and  is,  indeed, 
hard  to  understand.  Heavy  judgments  on  Israel  are  at 
last  to  purify  it  and  lead  it  to  God.  His  people  are  then  to 
triumph,  and  His  Spirit  to  be  poured  out  upon  them,  so 
that  they  will  bitterly  repent  their  former  wickedness,  and 
in  the  end  will  purify  themselves  from  all  ungodliness. 

"XTI.  1.  The  burden  of  the  word  of  Jehovah  ^  respecting  Israel. 
Jehovah,  who  stretched  forth  the  heavens,  and  laid  the  foundations  of 
the  earth,  and  formed  the  spirit  of  man  within  him,  saith:  2.  Behold, 
I  will  make  Jerusalem  a  cup  of  confusion  to  all  the  peoples  round,  and 
that  cup  will  be  also  for  Judah,  when  Jerusalem  is  besieged.  3.  On 
that  day  I  will  make  Jerusalem  for  all  peoples  a  stone  heavy  to  move; 
all  who  try  to  raise  it  will  be  sore  hurt,  and  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  will  be  gathered  together  against  her.  4.  In  that  day,  says  Je- 
hovah, I  will  smite  every  horse  with  terror,  and  his  rider  with  frenzy, 
and  I  will  open  My  eyes  on  the  house  of  Judah,  and  smite  every  horse 
of  the  nations  with  blindness.     5.  And  the  chiefs  of  Judah  will  say  in 

'  Fool ish= thoroughly  unworthy.  To  whom  this  refers  is  very  differently  under- 
stood by  different  scholars.  Some  think  it  refers  to  the  last  kings  of  Israel,  but 
especially  to  some  unknown  oppressor  who  followed  them.  Others  have  various 
conjectures.    Zech.  xi.  1517;  xii.  1-5. 

2  Zech.  xii.  This  chapter,  and  the  rest  of  the  Book,  are  assigned  by  Reiiss  and 
others  to  the  closing  times  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah.  The  author  is  held  to  have 
been  a  contemporary  of  Jeremiah,  and  to  have  uttered  these  chapters  about  b.  c. 
()07-t)06.  If  the  verses  in  the  text  were  spoken  before  the  Chaldiean  assault  on 
Jerusalem,  ii  is  clear,  however,  that  they  were  far  from  being  fulfilled  then. 


478  QUEEN   ESTHER. 

their  heart,  'The  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  are  a  strength  to  me, 
through  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  their  God.'  6.  In  that  day  I  will  make 
the  chiefs  of  Judah  a  panful  of  fire  among  fagots,'  and  like  a  torch 
among  sheaves,  and  they  will  consume  the  peoples  round  about,  on 
the  right  hand  and  the  left,  and  Jerusalem  shall  still  dwell  on  her  old 
bounds.  7.  Jehovah,  also,  will  save  the  tents  of  Judah  first,  that  the 
glory  of  the  house  of  David  and  of  tlie  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  may 
not  magnify  itself  against  Judah. 

"8.  In  that  day  Jehovah  will  defend  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem, 
and  he  that  is  feeble  ^  among  them,  at  that  day,  shall  be  (strong)  as 
David,  and  the  house  of  David  shall  be  as  God;  as  the  angel  of 
Jehovah  before  them.  9.  And  on  that  day  I  will  seek  to  destroy  all 
the  nations  that  come  against  Jerusalem." 

But  Jehovah  will  do  still  more  for  His  people.  He  will 
pour  out  His  Spirit  on  them,  and  lead  them  to  sincere 
repentance. 

"  10.  And  I  will  pour  on  the  house  of  David  and  on  the  inhabitants 
of  Jerusalem,  the  spirit  of  grace  and  supplication,  and  they  wall  look 
on  him  *  whom  they  have  pierced,  and  they  will  mourn  for  him  as  one 
who  mourns  for  his  only  son,  and  be  in  bitterness  for  him,  as  one  that 
weeps  bitterly  for  liis  first-born.  11.  In  that  day  there  will  be  a  great 
mourning  in  Jerusalem,  like  the  mourning  at  Tladadrimmon,  in  the 
valley  of  Megiddo  (where  all  Israel  lamented  the  death  of  King 
Josiah),*  13.  and  the  whole  land  will  mourn,  every  clan  apart ;  the 
clan  of  the  house  of  David  apart,  and  their  wives  by  themselves  ;  13. 
the  clan  of  the  house  of  Levi  apart,  and  their  wives  by  themselves  ; 
the  clan  of  Shimei^  apart,  and  their  wives  by  themselves;  and  all  the 
clans  besides,  every  clan  apart,  and  their  wives  by  themselves." 

This  earnest  repentance  of  Israel  will  lead  to  a  hearty 
and  full  regeneration  of  the  people,  since  God  will  open  to 
them  the  fountain  of  His  grace,  to  cleanse  them  from  sin 
and  to  strengthen  them  to  a  holy  life. 

"XIII.  1.  In  that  day  a  fountain  will  be  opened  to  the  house  of 
David  and  to  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  for  sin  and  for  unclean- 

'  Zech.  xii.  6-13  ;  xiii.  1.  ^  Literally,  "tottering." 

8  Hebrew,  "me  ;  "  many  MSS.  have  "hiin."  *  Vol.  v.  p.  252. 

*  The  clan  of  the  son  of  Gerson,  the  grandson  of  Levi.    Num.  iii.  17,  18. 


QUEEiq"   ESTHER.  479 

ness.  2.  On  that  day,'  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  I  will  root  out  the  names 
of  the  idols  from  the  land,  and  they  shall  no  more  be  remembered,  and 
1  will  also  remove  the  (false)  prophets  and  the  spirit  of  uncleanness 
from  the  land.  3.  And  if  any  one  still  (pretends  to)  prophesy,  his 
father  and  his  mother,  who  begat  him,  will  say  to  him,  '  Thou  shalt 
not  live,  for  thou  speakest  a  lie  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,'  and  they  will 
thrust  him  through  for  his  (pretended)  prophesying.  4.  And  in  that 
day  the  (false)  prophets  will  be  brought  to  shame,  every  one  for  his 
(so-called)  prophetic  visions,  and  they  will  no  longer  wear  a  garment 
of  hair  to  deceive.  5.  But  such  a  false  proi)het  will  say,  'I  am  no 
prophet,  I  am  a  tiller  of  the  ground,  for  a  man  bought  me  as  a  slave, 
in  my  youth,  to  tend  cattle.'  6.  And  if  one  ask  him,  '  What  are  these 
wounds  in  your  hands  ? '  (He  will  not  own  that  they  are  the  cuttings 
he  made  in  his  flesh,  in  Baal  worship  and  the  like),  but  will  pretsnd 
that  they  are  the  marks  of  stripes  received,  when  a  child,  from  his 
parents,  who  loved  him." 

The  prophet  now  passes  to  a  new  subject — the  judgment 
by  which  Israel  will  at  last  be  purified  from  the  moral  dross 
still  cleaving  to  it,  and  be  made  a  holy  people  to  Jehovah. 

*'  7.  Awake,  0  sword,  against  my  shepherd,  against  the  man  who 
is  My  fellow,''  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts.  Smite  the  shepherd,  that  the 
sheep  may  be  scattered  ;  then  will  I  turn  My  hand  towards  the  poor 
(and  pious).'  8.  And  in  the  w^hole  land,  says  Jehovah,  two  parts  will 
be  destroyed  and  die,  but  a  third  part  will  survive.  9.  And  I  will 
bring  the  third  part  into  the  fire  and  smelt  them  as  silver  is  smelted, 
and  purify  them  as  gold  is  purified.  They  will  call  on  My  name  and 
I  will  hear  them  ;  I  will  say,  *  They  are  My  people,'  and  they  will  say, 
'Jehovah  is  my  God.' 

"XIV.  1.  Behold!  a  day  of  Jehovah  comes,  and  thy  spoil  will  be 
divided  in  the  midst  of  thee  (0  Zion).  2.  For  I  will  gather  all  nations 
against  Jerusalem,  to  battle,  and  the  city  will  be  taken,  the  houses 
sacked,  the  women  outraged,  and  half  the  town  will  go  forth  into 
captivity,  but  the  rest  of  the  people  will  not  be  cut  off  from  the  city. 
3.  For  Jehovah  will  go  forth  and  fight  against  these  nations,  as  He 
fights  on  the  day  of  battle.  4.  And  His  feet  shall  stand  in  that  day 
on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  which  lies  east  of  Jerusalem,  and  that  mount 

>  Zech.  xiii.  2-9  ;  xiv.  1-4. 

2  Or  '  neighbour."    The  word  is  thus  translated  in  nearly  every  case  in  the  A.  V. 

3  Hitzig. 


480  QUEEN"   ESTHER. 

will  split  in  the  midst,  east  and  west,  into  a  very  great  valley,  and 
half  of  it  will  move  to  the  north  and  half  of  it  to  the  south.  5.  And 
ye  shall  flee  to  the  valley  of  My  mountains,  for  the  valley  of  the 
mountains  will  reach  to  Azel,  (close  to  Jerusalem);^  yea,  ye  will  flee 
as  ye  fled  before  the  earthquake,  in  the  days  of  Uzziah,  king  of  Judah, 
and  Jehovah,  my  God,  will  come,  and  all  the  holy  ones  with  Him.'-^  6. 
And  on  that  day  there  will  be  no  light  ;  the  stars  ^  will  shrink  back.* 
7.  But  it  will  be  a  day  known  of  Jehovah,  neither  day  nor  night,  but 
at  Ihe  evening  time  it  shall  be  light.  8.  And  in  that  day  living  waters 
Avill  flow  out  from  Jerusalem,  half  of  them  to  the  East  (or  Dead)  Sea, 
half  of  them  to  the  Western  Sea  (the  Mediterranean) ;  they  will  flow 
both  in  summer  and  winter.  9.  And  Jehovah  will  be  king  over  all 
the  land.  In  that  day  Jehovah  will  be  One  and  His  name  One.  10. 
All  the  land  will  be  changed  and  made  like  the  Arabah,  (the  plain 
south  of  the  Dead  Sea),  from  Geba,  (nine  miles  north  of  Jerusalem), 
to  Rinimon,  far  to  the  south  of  it,^  and  Jerusalem  will  stand  high, 
and  dwell  on  its  bounds,  from  the  Gate  of  Benjamin,  (on  the  north 
wall),  to  the  place  of  the  first  gate — the  Gate  of  the  Corner,  (on  the 
north-west) — and  from  the  Tower  of  Hananeel,  (on  the  north-east 
corner  of  the  walls),®  to  the  king's  wine-presses,  (on  the  south  of  the 
city).'  11.  And  men  will  dwell  in  it,  and  there  will  be  no  more  a  ban 
on  it,  (it  will  no  more  be  devoted  by  God  to  destruction),  and  Jerusalem 
will  dwell  securely." 

While  Israel  will  be  thus  blest  by  God,  its  enemies  will 
be  grieTonsly  punished. 

*'12.  And  this  will  l)e  the  plague  with  which  Jehovah  will  smite  all 
the  peoples  that  have  fought  against  Jerusalem.  Their  flesh  shall 
waste  away  while  they  stand  on  their  feet,  and  their  eyes  waste  away 
in  their  sockets,  and  their  tongues  in  their  mouth.  13.  And  in  that 
day  there  will  be  a  great  confusion,  from  Jehovah,  among  them,  so 
that  every  one  will  seize  the  hand  of  his  neighbour,  and  lift  up  his 
hand  against  his  neighbour's  hand.     14.  And  Judah  also  will  fight  at 

1  Mic.  i.  11 ;  called  there  Beth-ezel.    Zech.  3uv.  5-14.  '  So,  many  MSS. 

3  Hebrew,  "  The  precious  things." 

*  The  Septuagint  reads,  "  there  shall  not  be  light,  but  cold  and  ice." 
6  Perhaps  the  ruins  "  Um  er  Rummanim,"  twelve  miles  north  of  Beersheba.   Josh 
XV.  33  ;  xix.  7. 
«  Neh.  iii.  1.  '  Neh.  iii.  15. 


QUEEN   ESTHEB.  481 

Jerusalem,  and  the  wealth  of  all  the  nations,  round  about,  will  be 
gathered  together,  gold  and  silver,  and  garments,  in  great  abundance. 
15.  And  the  plague '  (sent  from  Jehovah)  on  the  horse,  the  mule,  the 
camel,  the  ass,  and  all  the  cattle,  iu  those  camps,  will  be  the  same  as 
that  on  the  men." 

The  heathen  who  escape  these  judgments  will  ulti- 
mately turn  to  Grod. 

*'  16.  And  it  will  come  to  pass,  that  every  one  left  of  all  the  nations 
who  came  up  against  Jerusalem,  will  go  up  (to  it)  from  year  to  year, 
to  worship  the  King,  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  and  to  keep  the  Feast  of  Tab- 
ernacles. 17.  And  on  those,  of  all  the  families  of  the  earth,  who  will 
not  come  up  to  worship  the  King,  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  there  will  be  no 
rain.  18.  And  if  the  people  of  Egypt  do  not  go  up  (to  Jerusalem,  to 
the  feasts),  on  them  shall  be  the  plague,'*  with  which  Jehovah  will 
smite  the  nations  that  do  not  come  up  to  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles." 

In  that  last  time  all  Jerusalem  will  be  holy  to  Jehovah. 

"20.  In  that  day  there  will  be  (even)  on  the  bells  of  the  horses, 
'  Holy  to  Jehovah,'  and  the  very  pots  (for  cooking),  in  the  House  of 
Jehovah,  will  be  pure  as  the  sacrificial  bowls  before  the  altar.  21.  In- 
deed, every  pot  in  Jerusalem  and  in  Judah  will  be  holy  to  Jehovah  of 
Hosts,  and  all  who  intend  to  offer  sacrifices  will  come  and  take  them, 
and  seethe  (their  offerings  in  them — so  ceremonially  clean  will  they  be). 
And  in  that  day  no  Oanaanite  (that  is,  no  unworthy  worshipper)  will 
enter  any  more  into  the  House  of  Jehovah  of  Hosts." 

These  utterances  may  be  taken  as  an  illustration  of  those 
addressed  to  the  community  at  Jerusalem,  in  the  gloomy 
years  preceding  the  arrival  of  Ezra  from  Persia,  in  B.C. 
459  or  458,  nearly  eighty  years  after  the  Return.  Couched 
in  a  highly  figurative  style,  their  meaning  is  even  now  very 
obscure ;  but  their  strong  and  vivid  imagery  of  defeats  and 
plague  to  be  endured  by  the  enemies  of  Israel,  and  of  the 
final  glory  of  Jerusalem,  saved  at  last  from  all  its  foes,  was 

*  Zech.  xiv.  15-21.  «  Septuagint. 

VOL.  VI.-81 


482  QUEEN   ESTHER. 

well-fitted  to  cheer  the  popultition  amidst  its  long  depres- 
sion. Neither  prophet  nor  people  could  believe  that  any 
but  a  triumphant  future  lay  before  the  nation,  bringing 
with  it  a  triumphal  war  of  revenge  against  all  its  enemies^ 
and  elevation  over  them  as  their  all-powerful  conqueror. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

EZRA   Al^D   I^^EHEMIAH. 

The  enthusiasm  which  had  urged  so  many  of  the  exiles 
in  Babylon  to  seek  the  land  of  their  fathers  once  more, 
had  reacted  on  the  far  larger  portion  of  the  nation,  which 
stayed  behind.  The  Pilgrim  Fathers  had  set  out,  amidst 
the  profound  sympathy  of  their  less  adventurous  brethren, 
carrying  with  them  rich  proofs  of  its  sincerity.  Idolatry 
was  finally  and  absolutely  abandoned  in  every  Jewish  home 
on  the  Euphrates,  as  one  result  of  the  religious  fervour  of 
the  time.  Family  ties  linked  together  the  new  colony  in 
Judah  and  those  who  remained  behind,  and  led  to  a  lively 
intercourse  between  the  two  communities.  On  the  one 
hand,  men  from  Jerusalem  revisited  their  brethren  of  the 
Golah  or  Dispersion,  telling  the  sad  trials  in  Jerusalem  and 
Judah,  and  seeking  help  from  rich  friends  in  Babylonia.* 
On  the  other,  not  a  few  journeyed  from  the  Euphrates  to 
the  Holy  City,  to  pay  vows  and  offer  gifts  on  the  spot  once 
more  consecrated  by  the  presence  of  Jehovah.  When  Jews 
in  Palestine  and  other  lands,  as  was  not  infrequent  in  such 
troubled  times,  were  seized  as  captives  or  sold  as  slaves, 
tlieir  brethren  of  the  Oolah  spared  no  efforts  or  sacrifices 
to  redeem  or  deliver  them.'  Prosperous,  and  able  to  help 
their  motherland,  these  foreign  Hebrews  were  proud  to  do 
so.     Since  Susa  had  become  the  residence  of  the  Persian 

>Neb.L2.  *Neb.  V.8. 


484  EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH. 

kings,  and  Babylon  had  thus  lost  its  importance,  many 
Jews  had  followed  the  court,  and  founded  new  colonies  in 
the  eastern  provinces,  where  numbers  grew  rich,  and  some, 
like  Daniel  in  earlier  days,  gained  official  positions  under 
the  Great  King. 

The  reaction  from  their  former  heathen  tendencies  was 
very  striking.  Face  to  face  with  idolatry,  they  at  last 
acted  on  the  counsels  of  the  prophets,  and  put  away  every 
approach  to  it  in  their  own  practice,  devoting  themselves 
to  Jehovah  as  their  only  God.  Their  national  isolation  pro- 
moted this  great  reform, while  the  still  stricter  separation  de- 
manded by  their  religion,  for  its  complete  observance,  increas- 
ingly developed  this  cherished  distinctness.  Cut  off  from 
the  Temple  and  its  rites,  they  grew  increasingly  anxious  to 
preserve  their  boast  of  being  •^'the  people  of  God.^'  Mar- 
riage was  henceforth  only  permitted  within  their  own  race, 
and  the  faith  of  their  fathers,  at  least  in  its  ritual  details, 
became  the  one  rule  of  their  life.  They  might  be  unable 
to  carry  out  the  precepts  relating  to  worship  in  the  Temple, 
but  they  could  observe  with  the  more  sedulous  care  those 
which  bore  on  everyday  practice — the  Sabbath,  the  religious 
festivals,  circumcision,  and  the  laws  of  Levitical  purity. 
They  had  houses  for  prayer,  in  which  they  met  at  set  times. 
Amidst  a  population  speaking  Aramaic,  they  still  cherished 
among  themselves  their  ancestral  Hebrew  ' — as  the  language 
of  their  sacred  writings.  In  these  they  found  a  worthy  ob- 
ject for  their  freshly  kindled  religious  zeal,  cut  off  as  they 
were  from  the  Temple,  its  prayers,  and  sacrifices.  The 
writings  of  the  prophets  were  their  special  delight  in  the 
earlier  years  of  the  Exile,  notwithstanding  their  searching 
reproofs  ;  for,  besides  these,  there  were  magnificent  prom- 

i  Neh.  xiii.  84. 


B2I11   AND   NEHEMtAH.  '  485 

isos  to  excite  their  hopes  anri  gratify  their  pride.  But,  as 
time  passed,  the  Books  of  the  Law,  in  their  five-fokl  division, 
took  the  chief  place  in  their  regard.  As  the  very  Avords 
heard  by  their  great  leader,  Moses,  from  the  lips  of  Jeho- 
vah, on  the  awful  top  of  Sinai,  ''out  of  the  midst  of  the 
lire,  of  the  cloud,  and  of  the  thick  darkness,"  when  God 
"spoke  to  him  with  a  great  voice,"  ''all  tlie  command- 
ments, and  the  statutes,  and  the  judgments,  which  he 
should  teach  Israel  " — their  commands  demanded  zealous 
obedience,  at  oiice  to  secure  His  favour,  and  to  emphasize 
the  supreme  distinction  among  mankind  which  the  pos- 
session of  them  implied.  A  new  order  of  literary  men  ere 
long  arose,  to  whom  the  study  of  the  Law  was  the  absorb- 
ing passion  of  life.  There  had  always  been  "  scribes,"  as 
the  annalists,  clerks,  and  letter  writers  of  the  community  ; 
but  hencefortli  the  name  was  virtually  limited  to  those  who 
devoted  themselves  wholly  to  the  copying  or  studying  of 
the  Torah.  Every  precept  was  discussed  by  these  enthusi- 
asts in  all  its  possible  applications,  that  no  loop-hole  might 
be  left  for  even  constructive  transgression.  A  beginning 
was  thus  made  of  the  vast  system  of  casuistry,  which,  in 
after  times,  expanded  into  the  twelve  folio  volumes  of  the 
Talmud.  To  guard  against  the  breach  of  even  the  most 
trivial  legal  requirement,  a  "  hedge  ^^  of  outlying  pre- 
scriptions was  set  round  the  Avhole  LaAv.  In  their  puri- 
tanical zeal,  the  scribes  were  disposed  to  widen  the  sweep 
of  every  injunction.  The  spirit  of  the  good  king  Josiah, 
the  true  founder  of  Judaism,  had  revived  in  the  early 
Rabbis  of  the  Babylonian  Oolali. 

It  was  otherwise  among  the  colonists  of  Judah  and  Jeru- 
salerr .  Some,  doubtless,  were  as  zealous  for  the  Law  as 
their  brethren  on  the  Euphrates,  but  very  many  had  yielded 


486  EZRA   AN^D   NEHEMIAH. 

to  circumstances,  and  intermingled  freely  with  the  families 
of  kindred  races  in  their  midst,  not  a  few  of  whom  had  be- 
come proselytes  to  the  Jewish  faith,  and  lived  in  Judah  and 
Jerusalem.  Marriages  of  Israelites  with  women  of  alien 
blood,  though,  perhaps,  as  a  rule,  of  a  common  faith,  natu- 
rally resulted,  and  other  laxities,  such  as  a  careless  observ- 
ance of  the  Sabbath,  more  or  less  prevailed.* 

This  state  of  things  must  have  been  known  in  Babylonia, 
though  hardly  realized  to  the  full  extent  by  those  who  were 
themselves  so  strict.  A  zealous  reformer,  however,  soon 
appeared,  destined  to  bring  about  a  wonderful  change. 

At  the  head  of  the  scribes  among  the  Golah,  stood  Ezra, 
a  man  of  priestly  rank,  famous  for  his  knowledge  of  the 
Law,  and  zeal  for  its  strict  observance.  His  ancestry, 
which  he  could  trace  back  to  Aaron,"  included  a  long  suc- 
cession of  priestly  dignitaries.  He  was  a  descendant  of  the 
high  priest,  Hilkiah,  who  had  found  the  Book  of  the  Lavr 
in  the  Temple,  in  the  days  of  Josiah,  and  of  the  high  priest 
Seraiah,  whom  Nebuchadnezzar  had  put  to  death  at  Eiblah.' 
Hence  he  stood  out  from  his  contemporaries  as  especially 
^^  the  priest.^'*  But  having  been  born  in  Babylonia,  he 
had  never  seen  the  Temple.  His  joriestly  dignity  was  thus 
only  titular,  for  he  was  far  from  the  spot  where  alone  he 
could  officiate.  So  much  the  more  earnestly  had  he  be- 
taken himself  to  the  study  of  the  Law,  and  so  much  the 
more  enthusiastic  was  he  for  its  rigid  observance.  To 
secure  this,  all  other  considerations  had  to  bow.  Intensely 
earnest,  he  had  the  absolute  confidence  of  a  zealot  in  his 
own  definitions  of  its  requirements.  To  enforce  the  Leviti- 
cal  holiness  of  Israel  had  become  his  one  idea,  and  no  Puri- 

»  Neh.  xiii.  15.  «  Ezra  vii.  1,  ff. 

s  2  Kings  XXV.  18.  «  Ezra  vii.  11,  12  ;  x.  10,  16.    Neh.  viil.  2. 


EZRA   AND   KEHEMIAH.  487 

tan  was  ever  more  energetic  or  stern  in  pressing  liis  will  on 
others  as  that  of  God.  Already  known  as  "the  priest," 
he  was  even  more  widely  known  in  his  riper  years  as  "the 
scribe."'  On  new  year's  day  of  B.C.  459-8,  the  seventh 
year  of  Artaxerxes  "the  long-armed,"  son  of  the  murdered 
Xerxes,  Ezra  had  made  up  his  mind  to  visit  the  Jewish 
colony  in  Palestine,  and  with  his  usual  decision  at  once 
sought  and  obtained  permission  from  the  king  to  do  so. 
His  object  was  to  inquire  respecting  the  observance  of  the 
Law,  as  expounded  by  himself,  in  Judah  and  Jerusalem.* 
His  own  profound  acquaintance  with  it,  and  his  absolute 
obedience  to  its  minutest  requirements  were  so  universally 
acknowledged,  that  a  school  of  disci2)les  had  gathered  round 
him  in  Babylon,  to  spread  his  doctrine  and  recommend  his 
example.'  In  his  opinion  it  rose  in  dignity  above  all  the 
other  sacred  writings.  Other  prophets  had  received  revela- 
tions in  Visions,  but  Moses  had  seen  God  face  to  face.  The 
Law  had  come  direct  from  the  lips  of  Jehovah. 

Twelve  days  after  his  resolution  to  set  out  for  Jerusalem, 
he  was  ready  to  start,  armed  with  a  letter  from  Artaxerxes, 
securing  him  the  assistance  and  protection  of  the  imperial 
officers,  on  his  journey  and  in  Palestine.  King  and  nobles, 
indeed,  vied  with  each  other  to  shew  him  favour,  so  pro- 
found is  the  power  of  transparent  sincerity.  Besides  con- 
tributing gold  and  silver  as  gifts  to  the  Temple,  Artaxerxes 
allowed  him  to  accept  help  from  his  brethren  and  others 
who  were  friendly.  He  soon  received  twenty  sacred  ves 
sels  of  gol4,  worth  a  thousand  darics,  or  £1,000  sterling  ;  * 
and  two,  as  costly  as  gold,  of  glittering  copper  ;  smaller 
ones  of  gold,  weighing  a  hundred  talents — equal  to  £45,000, 

>  Neh.  viii.  4,  9,  13  ;  xll.  36,  36.    Ezra  vii.  6, 11,  12.  ^  Ezra  vii.  14. 

»  Ezra  vii.  10.  *  Riehm,  p.  256. 


488  EZRA   AN'D   N-EHEMIAH. 

and  others,  of  silver,  of  equal  weight,  that  is,  worth  £20,- 
000.'  In  silver  money,  alone,  he  further  received  650 
talents,  or  nearly  £200, 000, '^  an  immense  amount  in  those 
times.  Orders  on  the  royal  treasuries  secured  wheat,  wine, 
oil,  and  salt,  for  the  caravan,  at  every  station,^  and  he  was 
further  empowered  to  obtain  from  these  stores  whatever 
money  might  be  required  for  sacrifices  at  Jerusalem." 
Special  exemption  from  taxes  was,  moreover,  granted  all 
priests,  Levites,  and  other  officials  of  the  Temple.^  Finally, 
he  was  empowered  to  appoint  magistrates  and  judges  in 
Judah  who  should  secure  obedience  to  the  Law,  and  see 
that  it  was  universally  taught  ;  ^  obedience  to  them  being 
enforced  under  penalty  of  imprisonment,  confiscation  of 
goods,  exclusion  from  the  congregation,  or  death,  as  they, 
or  he  himself,  decreed.'  He  was  armed,  in  fact,  with 
despotic  j)Ower  to  enforce  compliance  with  his  religious 
opinions.  Submission  to  his  will  was  the  only  protection 
against  the  loss  of  property,  or  even  of  life. 

The  rendezvous  for  the  caravan  was  appointed  at  Ahava, 
on  a  canal  of  that  name,  in  Babylonia,  and  there  no  fewer 
than  1,500  men  of  the  better  classes  pitched  their  tents  on 
the  appointed  day — laymen,  priests,  and  others.  No  one 
of  doubtful  blood  could  be  enrolled  in  such  an  expedition, 
and  hence  three  days  Avere  spent  in  testing  the  genealogies 
of  the  intending  pilgrims.  Strange  to  say,  no  Levites  had 
presented  themselves,  nor  any  of  the  Temple  slaves.®  A 
weighty  deputation  of  chief  men,  with  two  ^Heachers  "^  of 
the  Law — members  of  the  new  body  of  scribes — was  there- 
fore sent   off^   to  a   colony  of   Levites    and  Nethinim  at 

1  Kneiicker,  Bib.  Lex.,  vol.  v.  p.  460.  2  Ezra  viii.  25-27. 

*  Ezra  vii.  22.  ^  Ezra  vii.  16.  *  Ezra  vii.  24. 

«  Ezra  vii.  25.  ''  Ezra  vii.  26.  s  Ezra  viii.  15-17. 

'  In  A.  v.,  "  Men  of  unilerstaudiiig,'"  Ezra  viii.  16. 


EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH.  489 

Casiphia,  a  place  now  unknown^  for  volunteers.  The  acces- 
sion of  a  ^'  teacher  "  or  scribe,  and  about  forty  Levites  and 
two  hundred  and  twenty  Temple  servants '  was  the  result. 
Laity,  priests,  Levites  in  the  strict  sense.  Temple  singers 
and  guards,  and  slaves,  were  now  ready  to  start.  With 
women  and  children,  the  whole  caravan  must  have  num- 
bered more  than  5,000  souls. 

It  only  remained  to  commend  the  undertaking  to  the 
care  of  the  Almighty,  and  for  this  end  a  fast  was  pro- 
claimed. Having  told  the  king  that  the  hand  of  Jehovah 
was  on  all  them,  for  good,  that  sought  Him,  Ezra  refused 
an  escort  of  horse  and  foot  which  had  been  offered,  to 
guard  the  caravan,  wdtli  its  tempting  Avealth,  from  the  law^- 
less  Arabs.'  The  gold  and  silver,  and  sacred  vessels,  hav- 
ing finally  been  committed  to  the  care  of  chosen  priests 
and  Levites,  the  tents  were  struck,  and  the  journey  began. 
The  "holy  things"  were  intrusted  to  "holy  men,"  who 
were  to  devote  themselves  to  their  charge  till  it  was  deliv- 
ered to  the  chief  priests,  Levites,  and  elders,  m  the  cham- 
bers of  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem.^ 

Four  months  and  a  half  were  spent  in  the  long  march  up 
the  Euphrates,  across  the  desert  to  Northern  Syria,  and 
then  south,  to  Jerusalem.*  "The  hand  of  our  Uod  waa 
upon  us,"  says  Ezra,  and,  thus  protected,  no  enemy 
troubled  them  on  the  way. 

The  arrival  of  such  an  addition  to  their  numbers  must 
have  been  most  welcome  to  the  citizens  of  Jerusalem.  It 
seemed  as  if,  at  last,  the  words  of  the  prophets  had  been 
realized.  The  treasures  of  the  heathen,  borne  by  long 
trains  of  camels,  were  safe  in  the  holy  city ;  and  a  leader* 

i  Ezra  viii.  16-aO.  -  Ezra  viii.  22. 

»  Ezra  viii.  29.  *  ^zia  tU.  9  ;  viii.  81. 


490  EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH. 

fiimous  for  his  knowledge  of  the  Law  and  zeal  in  its  behalf, 
had  come,  with  royal  power  to  promote  its  observance. 
Ezra  must  have  appeared,  to  not  a  few,  the  expected 
Messiah. 

On  the  fourth  day,  the  silver,  gold,  and  sacred  vessels  were 
duly  weighed  and  handed  over  to  the  Temple  officials,  rep- 
resented by  two  priests  and  two  Levites.  The  high  priest 
Eliashib,'  however,  is  not  named,  as  if  the  stern  precisian, 
now  supreme  in  Church  and  State,  had  some  reason  for  slight- 
ing him.  Great  public  rejoicings,  taking  the  Hebrew  form 
of  a  religious  festival,  with  huge  sacrifices,  welcomed  the 
new-comers  and  their  chief,  and  the  commands  of  the  Great 
King  in  favour  of  the  Jews  were  sent  off  to  the  Persian 
officials,  amid  bright  hopes  and  universal  enthusiasm. 

Ezra  at  once  took  his  place  as  the  supreme  judge  over  the 
community,  superseding  the  high  priest  himself  and  all 
other  authorities  ;  but  five  months  and  a  half  passed — from 
August  to  December — without  any  incident  of  moment. 
Meanwhile,  the  new  ruler  had  been  carefully  noting  things 
around  him.  With  his  staff  of  subordinate  scribes,  he 
marked  the  shortcomings  of  the  community.  A  copy  of 
the  Law,'  brought  by  him  from  Babylon,  was  the  statute 
book,  from  which  there  was  no  appeal.  His  ideas,  harsh 
and  severe  on  many  points,  in  the  judgment  of  not  a  few, 
must,  to  some  extent,  have  got  abroad ;  among  others, 
those  on  mixed  marriages,  which  he  fiercely  condemned. 

Some  of  the  leading  men,  whether  from  conviction  or 
policy,  were  ready  to  adopt  Ezra's  views,  but  there  was  a 
strong  undercurrent  of  opposition,  which  only  yielded  to 
compulsion.  Those,  however,  who  were  at  one  with  him — 
it  may  be  from  conscientious  scruples,  raised  by  hearing 

>  presumably,  Joiakim  would  now  be  dead.  •  Ezra  vii.  25. 


EZRA   AND   N^EHEMIAH.  491 

extracts  from  his  copy  of  the  Law — appeared  before  Ezra 
on  the  sixteenth  day  of  the  ninth  month  (nearly  our  De- 
cember), and  informed  him,  with  many  expressions  of  pain, 
that  marriages  with  women  of  non- Jewish  races  had  hitherto 
been  common  in  Jerusalem  and  Judah,  among  all  classes.* 
The  Law,  strictly  interpreted,  was  beyond  question  against 
these  alliances.  In  Exodus'  and  Deuteronomy^  such  rela- 
tions with  the  native  races  of  Canaan  were  strictly  forbid- 
den; but  the  deputation  which  now  appeared  before  Ezra 
added  to  these  the  names  of  peoples — the  Ammonites,  Moab- 
ites,  and  Egyptians — not  formally  excluded  from  marriages 
with  Israelites,  and  even  in  later  times  permitted  by  the 
Sanhedrim  to  perform  such  alliances,*  though  they  were 
apparently  condemned  in  the  historical  books  as  contrary 
to  the  spirit  of  the  Law/  The  prohibition  quoted  could 
indeed  be  only  constructively  applicable,  for  most  of  the 
races  mentioned  had  long  ceased  to  exist  as  separate  com- 
munities, having  for  many  generations  been  fused  into  the 
general  population  of  Palestine. 

Such  a  state  of  things  amongst  those  who  had  left  Baby- 
lon to  rebuild  the  Temple  shocked  Ezra  to  the  soul.  It  was 
no  mitigation  of  the  sin,  in  his  eyes,  that  the  question  of 
mixed  marriages  had  always  been  viewed  liberally  in  the 

•  Ezraix.  1.  The  laity  are  always  put  first  in  Ezra's  enumeration  of  classes.  A 
lesson  of  modesty  to  some  in  our  own  day. 

2  Exod.  xxxiv.  12-16.  »  Dent.  vii.  1-5.  «  Hamburger,  ii.  294. 

*  Jndg.  iii.  5.  1  Kings  xi.  2.  Neh.  xiii.  2.  The  note  of  Graetz  is  worth  translating. 
It  runs  thus  :  As  legal  warrant  for  regarding  it  as  abreach  of  the  law,  Ezra  refers  (ix. 
12)  to  Deut.  xxiii.  3.  But  this  prohibition  refers  only  to  the  Moabites  and  Ammonites. 
Ezra  needed  therefore  to  generalize  the  transgression,  but  for  this  he  had  no  direct 
authority  from  the  Pentateuch.  He  was  therefore  forced  to  fall  back  on  an  indirect 
authority  (ix.  11).  This  is  an  allusion  to  Lev.  xviii.  24,  25,  and  to  Exod.  xxxiv.  15,  flF., 
since  the  Canaauitish  races  and  idolaters  are  there  refen'ed  to,  while  the  families  into 
which  the  Jews  had  married  were  neither.  Geschichte,  vol.  ii.  2,  p.  131.  The  pro- 
hibition in  Deut.  xxiii.  3,  refers  to  the  reception  of  the  peoples  UAmed  as  members 
of  the  nation— their  being  made  full  citizens. 


493  EZRA   Al^D  NEHEMIAH. 

past.  The  tliousands  of  different  races  * — Egyptians,  Arabs, 
and  the  formerly  sovereign  Hyksos  or  Shepherds,  among 
others — who  had  fled  from  Egypt  with  the  Jews,  had  gradu- 
ally been  absorbed  into  the  general  population  by  inter- 
marriages. Moses  himself  was  the  son  of  an  illegal  marriage 
of  nephew  and  aunt,^  and  he  had,  in  succession,  married  a 
Midianite  and  an  Ethiopian,  or  Cushite.  The  two  sons  of 
Naomi  had  married  Moabites,  and  Ruth,  the  Moabitess, 
had  been  the  great-grandmother  of  David  himself.^  More- 
over, even  he,  the  hero-king  and  the  idol  of  the  nation, 
had  married  aliens.*  Solomon  had  been  noted  for  his  many 
foreign  wives,  and  the  example  of"  royalty  is  catching. 
Rehoboam  was  the  son  of  an  ximmonite  woman ;  ^  Ahab 
married  Jezebel  of  Tyre,  and,  through  her,  tainted  the 
Jewish  purity  of  all  the  subsequent  kings  of  Judah.  In 
older  times,  moreover,  the  founder  of  the  illustrious  house 
of  Jerahmeelites,  in  the  days  of  Eli,  had  been  an  Egyptian, 
to  whom  a  Hebrew  chief  had  given  his  daughter  as  wife.® 
A  Syrian  mother  had  been  the  founder  of  the  great  family 
of  Machir,  the  Manassite,  of  Gilead.'  Marriages "  with 
women  taken  from  a  defeated  enemy  were  allowed  by  the 
Law,  and  we  find  a  sister  of  David  married  to  an  Ishmael- 
ite,®  while  Samson  had  Philistine  wives.  That  this  habit- 
ual crossing  of  the  Hebrew  blood  with  that  of  other  races 
continued  to  Ezra's  day  in  very  general  practice,  is  seen, 
moreover,  from  the  frequent  cautions  in  the  Book  of  Prov- 
erbs against  the  ''^strange,"  that  is,  the  foreign  woman. ^ 
It  had,  indeed,  been  impossible  hitherto  to  enforce  rigid 
isolation  from  surrounding  races ;  all  classes  of  the  popula- 

»  Exod.  xii.  38.    Num.  xi.  4,  etc. 

3  Exod.  vi.  20.    Num.  xxvi.  59.    Lev.  xviii.  12.  »  Ruth  i.  4  ;  iv.  22. 

*  3  Sam.  iii.  3.  *  1  Kings  xiv.  Hi.  «  1  Chron.  ii .  34. 

»  I  Chroiu  vii.  14.  •  2  Chron.  Jl.  17.  •  JProv.  v.  9;  vi.  £4 ;  vii.  & 


EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH.  493 

tion,  in  every  age,  had  more  or  less  evaded  it,'  so  that 
there  must  have  been  very  few  Jews  indeed  who  were  not 
of  more  or  less  mixed  blood. 

But  the  usage  of  a  thousand  years  was  to  be  abruptly 
broken  off.  To  Ezra,  the  "  holy  seed  "  of  Israel  was  pol- 
luted by  marriage  with  a  member  of  any  other  race,  even 
wliere  idolatry  had  been  abandoned,  and  Jehovah  was  wor- 
shipped. For  this,  it  cannot  be  doubted,  was  the  case 
with  such  alliances,  in  a  community  like  that  of  Jeru- 
salem, stern  Puritans,  who  had  left  their  native  land, 
Babylon,  and  all  they  had,  through  zeal  for  God.  But  to 
the  hard  and  narrow  mind  of  Ezra,  it  mattered  nothing 
that  the  wives  of  non-Jewish  blood  were  proselytes, 
obedient  to  the  faith.  It  was  enough  that  they  were  not 
Hebrews  of  the  Hebrews,  pure  in  their  descent  on  both 
sides.  According  to  him,  heathen,  who  had  accepted  the 
Jewish  faith,  might  be  admitted  into  the  congregation,  but 
only  on  an  inferior  footing,  as  a  separate  and  lower  caste. 
Like  the  Gibeonites  of  old,  and  the  Temple  slaves,  who, 
though  incorporated  with  the  State  for  more  than  a  thou- 
sand years,  and  Jews  in  creed,  were  yet  kept  distinct,  and 
prohibited  from  intermarriage  with  Israelites ;  the  prose- 
lytes from  the  peoples  round,  however  high  in  social 
position,  refined  by  education,  or  sincere  in  orthodoxy, 
must  be  kept  apart,  as  a  class  with  which  no  Jew  could 
condescend  to  ally  himself.  Pride  of  race  had  much  to  do 
with  this;  but  there  was,  besides,  a  dread  lest  close  rela- 
tions with  minds  more  liberal  than  their  own,  should  lead 
any  Jews  to  more  generous  views  on  points  of  the  cere- 
monial law  than  the  dogmatism  of  Ezra  permitted.  He 
was,  in  fact^  the  prototype  of  men  like  Dunstan,  or  Balfour 

»  Oudg.  iii.  G.    2  Sam.  xi.  3.      1  Kin-js  xi.  I ;  xvi.  31. 


494  EZRA   AN-D  NEHEMIAH. 

of  Burlej,  or  the  Puritans  who  banished  Eoger  Williams 
from  Massachusetts.  Intensely  sincere,  he  was  also  bit- 
terly intolerant  and  despotic.  His  marriage  law  was  not 
justified  by  that  of  Moses,  and  was  so  impracticable,  that 
the  Eabbis  themselves  modified  it  in  later  times.  But  he 
was  led  to  it  by  a  fear  which  the  circumstances  of  the  times 
amply  explain.  The  reception  of  proselytes  or  half-prose- 
lytes to  full  and  equal  citizenship  might,  in  his  opinion, 
corrupt  the  high  tone  of  the  community,  by  relaxing  the 
superstitious  observance  of  ceremonial  details,  which  his 
intensely  ritualistic  mind  regarded  as  the  safeguard  of  the 
religious  life. 

To  one  with  views  like  his,  such  a  state  of  things  as  was 
now  disclosed  was  an  overpowering  calamity.  Even  priests 
and  Levites  had  been  guilty  of  the  abhorred  marriages. 
His  excitable  Eastern  nature  was  overwhelmed  with  sorrow 
and  mortification.  He  had  received  the  deputation  in  the 
open  air,  but  now,  as  the  high  dignitaries  ended  their  con- 
fession, he  could  not  restrain  his  distress.  Rising  to  his 
feet,  he  rent  his  outer  and  then  his  inner  robe,  in  his  im- 
measurable grief,  and,  like  one  all  but  frenzied,  tore  his 
hair  and  his  beard,  till,  after  a  time,  he  sank  silent  and 
motionless  on  the  ground,  where  he  lay  till  the  hour  of  the 
evening  sacrifice,  amidst  a  surrounding  crowd,  stupefied 
and  confounded.  Then  rising  from  the  earth,  and  again 
tearing  his  robes,  he  strode  to  the  forecourt  of  the  Temple, 
and  falling  on  his  knees  before  the  multitude  assembled 
below  for  worship,  he  poured  forth  his  soul  aloud,  in  ago- 
nizing prayer,  with  his  hands  stretched  out  to  Jehovah. 
His  people,  he  cried,  had  come  back  from  Babylon,  no  bet- 
ter for  the  terrible  discipline.  They  had  fallen  again  into 
their  old  sins,  though  God  had  spared  a  remnant  of  them. 


EZRA   AND   ITEHEMIAH.  495 

through  favour  of  the  Persian  kings.  If  they  again  trans- 
gressed His  Law,  by  marriages  with  the  peoples  of  the  land, 
what  remained  but  that  even  that  remnant  would  be 
destroyed  by  the  just  wrath  of  the  Eternal  ?  Weeping 
aloud  as  he  spoke,  and  casting  himself  down  before  the 
Temple  in  an  agony  of  soul,  his  emotion  spread  to  the 
throng  of  men,  women,  and  children,  who  crowded  towards 
him,  to  catch  his  words.  That  the  great  Ezra,  illustrious 
as  "  the  priest,^'  and  no  less  so  as  "the  scribe,"  but  perhaps 
still  more  feared  as  the  commissioner  of  the  Great  King, 
with  life  and  death  in  his  hands,  should  be  thus  unmanned, 
implied  terrible,  though  hitherto  unsuspected,  guilt,  on 
the  part  of  the  community,  in  the  state  of  things  that  thus 
unnerved  him.  His  sighs  and  tears  provoking  theirs,  the 
Temple  courts  resounded  with  wailing. 

Ezra  was  destined  to  triumph.  Among  the  clans  which 
had,  in  part,  returned  from  Babylon  with  Zerubbabel, 
nearly  eighty  years  before,  were  the  Benai  Ehim,'  of  whom 
1,254  were  among  the  first  Pilgrim  Fathers.  Seventy-one 
more  had  just  come  with  Ezra,''  true  and  loyal  worshippers 
of  Jehovah.  Overpowered  by  the  moving  scene,  one  of 
these,  while  Ezra  was  still  on  his  knees,  after  his  prayer, 
broke  out  into  a  loud  confession  of  guilt,  for  himself  and 
his  brethren,  in  the  custom  denounced.  They  had  sinned 
against  their  God  by  having  taken  strange  wives,  of  the 
people  of  the  land.  But  now  there  was  hope  for  Israel.^ 
Let  them  make  a  covenant  with  their  God  to  put  aAvay  all 
the  wives,  with  their  children  ! 

Such  a  proposal  committed  all  present  to  the  course  Ezra 
demanded,  without  their  being  heard  in  self-defence.     Seiz- 

1  Ezraii.  7.    Neh.  vii.  12.    1  Esdr.  v.  12.  «  Ezra  viii.  7.    1  Esdr.  viii.  33. 

3  Ezra  X.  3. 


496  EZRA   AKD   2!}EHEMIAH. 

ing  the  advantage,  Ezra  instantly  rose  and,  turning  to  the 
chief  priests,  Levites,  and  laity  assembled,  called  on  them 
to  swear  adherence  to  the  speaker's  words.  Nor  could  they 
refuse.  Their  wives  and  children  had  done  no  wrong,  and 
it  might  have  been  expected  that  natural  affection  would 
have  pleaded  in  their  behalf.  But  pitiless  legalism,  armed 
with  the  power  of  life  and  death,  and  of  confiscation  of 
goods,  had  decided  against  them  ;  and  in  the  excitement 
and  fear  of  tlie  moment,  they  hastened  to  clear  themselves 
from  a  double  offence,  by  committing  one  that  revolts  every 
noble  feeling. 

The  reform  thus  begun  was  to  be  carried  to  its  bitter  end. 
Ezra  would  neither  eat  nor  drink  till  he  had  thoroughly 
gained  the  day  and  bent  the  community  to  his  will.  Like 
religious  enthusiasts  in  general,  he  believed  his  doctrine  to 
be  from  God,  and  forgot  even  his  natural  wants  till  what 
he  deemed  so  mortal  a  sin  on  the  part  of  his  people  was 
removed.  All  the  population  were  accordingly  summoned 
to  ap2:)ear  in  the  great  open  space  before  the  Temple, 
within  three  days,  on  pain  of  confiscation  of  all  they  had, 
and  exclusion  from  the  rights  of  citizenship.* 

It  was  December,  and  the  winter  rains  were  falling 
heavily  when  the  great  assembly  gathered.  Squatting,  in 
Eastern  fashion,  on  the  ground,  they  trembled,  we  are  told, 
partly  from  the  cold,  but  perhaps  more  from  excitement 
and  dread,  as  they  awaited  the  rising  of  Ezra  to  address 
them.'*  His  words  were  few  and  to  the  point.  They  had 
transgressed,  and  taken  strange  wives,  to  increase  the  sin 
of  Israel.  Let  them  confess  their  guilt  to  Jehovah,  and  do 
His  pleasure,  by  separating  themselves  from  their  non- 
Jewish  partners. 

»  Bara  x.  8.  2  Ezra  x.  9. 


EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH.  49? 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  private  feelings  of  some  in 
the  vast  crowd,  there  was  no  alternative  but  to  obey.  '^  As 
tliou  hast  said,  so  we  must  do/'  rose  loudly  from  all.  There 
was  no  arguing  with  a  man  who  could  strip  them  of  tlieir 
goods,  cut  off  their  rights  as  citizens,  or  even  take  their 
lives.  Besides,  had  not  Ezra  assured  them  that  the  fierce 
wrath  of  God  would  destroy  them,  if  they  did  not  obey 
him  ?  But  they  had  still  calmness  enough  to  object  to 
action  on  the  moment,  in  a  matter  so  grave.  There  were 
many  cases  to  examine,  the  weather  was  too  stormy  to 
remain  out  of  doors,  and  the  work  too  great  to  be  hurried 
over.  A  great  public  assembly  was  not  a  fit  l)ody  to  enter 
into  such  a  question.  Let  a  court  be  formed  in  Jerusalem, 
of  the  chief  men  of  each  tribe,  and  let  all  who  had  wives  of 
alien  blood  come  before  it,  at  an  appointed  time,  with  tlie 
elders  and  judges  of  their  respective  cities,  that  each  case 
might  be  carefully  examined.*  At  the  moment,  four  men 
alone,  one  of  them  a  Levite,  had  the  courage  to  oppose  the 
repudiation  of  women  who  had  married  them  in  good  faith, 
and,  as  all  had  thought,  with  due  legality  ;  but  not  a  few 
ultimately  refused  to  break  up  their  homes  and  turn  adrift 
their  innocent  wives  and  children. 

A  court  presided  over  by  Ezra,  with  the  heads  of  the 
great  clans  as  assessors,  soon  completed  this  questionable 
reform.  In  two  months,  a  multitude  of  blameless  women 
of  all  ranks  were  divorced.  Among  these  were  the  wives 
of  the  four  sons  of  Joshua,  the  high  priest  wlio  came  from 
Babylon  with  Zerubbabel,  themselves  dignified  priests  ;  the 
wives  of  a  number  of  priests  of  the  clans  of  Immer,  Harim, 
and  Pashur  ;  of  Levites,  of  Temple  singers,  and  of  laymen 

1  Ezra  X.  15.    For  "were  employed  about  this  matter,"  read,  "  stood  up  against 
this."    Gesenius.    Bertheau.    Keil. 
VOL.  ¥1.-32 


498  EZRA   AND    NEHEMIAH. 

of  many  different  clans.'  Innocent  mothers  and  helpless 
children  were  alike  turned  adrift/  in  the  name  of  religion  ; 
so  unnatural  is  fanaticism,  when  it  presumes  to  speak  for 
God.  But  the  transaction  did  not  pass  unpunished.  The 
races  insulted  in  the  persons  of  the  dismissed  wives  and 
children,  were  ere  long  bitterly  to  avenge  them. 

This  politic,  but  inhuman,  revolution,  however  fitted  to 
create  a  race  of  narrow  fanatics,  like  Ezra  himself,  can 
hardly  be  regarded  as  having  been  advantageous  to  the 
nation  on  higher  and  more  worthy  grounds.  The  inter- 
mingling of  divided  but  noble  stocks,  results  in  the  great 
and  beneficial  development  of  the  bodily  and  mental  powers 
of  their  offspring.  The  G-reeks  reached  their  full  grandeur, 
only  when  the  Ionic  and  Doric  tribes  were  fused  together. 
The  Eomans  and  the  English,  the  two  races  who  have  best 
understood  the  permanent  maintenance  of  a  world-wide 
empire,  were,  or  are,  mixed  peoples,  in  contrast  to  the 
unmixed  Germans  or  Slavs.  The  claim  advanced  for  his 
race  by  Disraeli,  that  the  Jews  are  the  first  people  of  the 
world,  and  owe  this  arrogated  superiority  to  their  having 
kept  themselves  apart  from  all  other  races,  is  mere  Hebrew 
pride,  and  contempt  of  humanity,  outside  their  own  pale, 
for  they  are  by  no  means  superior,  as  a  people,  to  other 
stocks,  and  they  never  were  a  pure-blooded  race,  as  has  been 
shewn,  though  they  have  crossed  only,  or  chiefly,  with  Ori- 
entals, whose  qualities,  better  and  worse,  were  on  a  level 
with  their  own.  Nor  are  the  claims,  thus  made  for  them, 
supported  by  the  testimony  of  history,  for  the  Jews  never, 
as  a  race,  played  a  great ^  or  even  a  respectable  part,  in  the 

J  Ezrax.  20-43. 

2  Ezra  X.  44.  Bertheau,  Graetz,  and  Kuenen  translate  the  second  clause  of  this 
verse,  '•  and  some  of  them  put  away  their  wives  and  children."  In  Neh.  vi.  18  we  find 
an  instance  of  a  mixed  marriage  still  upheld. 


EZRA   AN^D    N^EHEMIAH.  499 

story  of  tlie  nations.  The  momentary  gleam  of  importance 
given  them  by  the  achievements  of  David,  faded  away  un- 
der Solomon,  and  the  grand  character  of  Judas  Maccabeus 
IS,  if  possible,  the  brighter,  from  the  contrast  it  offers  to 
Jewish  history  as  a  whole.  They  have,  it  is  true,  developed, 
in  all  ages,  a  wonderful  power  of  making  gain  ;  a  natural 
genius  for  affairs,  great  and  small ;  and  have  produced 
many  brilliant  men,  in  law,  diplomacy,  and  literature;  but, 
as  a  people,  they  have  no  such  roll-call  of  immortals  as 
can  be  boasted  by  almost  any  of  the  ''Gentile ''  races  whom 
they  agree  in  affecting  to  despise,  as  their  inferiors.  N"o. 
A  people  which  gathers  into  itself  the  highest  qualities 
of  related  tribes,  must  ever  be  superior,  in  bodily  vigour, 
mental  energy,  and  force  of  character,  to  one  which  shuts 
itself  in  from  mankind. 

For  the  next  fourteen  years,  till  B.C.  445,  we  know 
nothing  of  the  history  of  Judah  or  Jerusalem.  In  that 
year,  however,  a  second  great  personage,  destined  to  exert 
a  lasting  influence  on  the  future  of  Israel,  arrived  from 
Persia.  The  Great  King  lived  during  summer  at  Ecba- 
tana,'  up  in  the  Median  hills,  and  during  winter  at  Susa, 
200  miles  south,  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains  of  Susiana, 
on  their  western  side,  where  the  warmth  of  the  Persian 
Gulf  was  tempered  by  upland  breezes.  Here,  among  the 
officials  at  the  court  of  Artaxerxes,  Nehemiah,  a  Jew,  held 
the  confidential  post  of  cup-bearer,  which  admitted  him  to 
constant  intercourse  with  his  master.  To  hold  such  a  post, 
implied  the  enjoyment  of  the  king's  special  confidence,  as 
oniy  an  official  who  was  unreservedly  trusted  could  be  al- 
lowed to  discharge  duties  so  readily  offering  opportunities 
to  a  traitor.      That   Xerxes   should   have   had  Esther,   a 

*  Ezra  vi.  2. 


500 


EZRA    AND    NEHEMIAII. 


Jewess,  as  one  of  liis  queens,  and  Mordecai  as  his  grand 
vizier,  acconnts  for  the  favonr  of  his  son  towards  Nehemiah. 
The  tradition  of  the  wisdom  and  fidelity  of  Daniel,  more- 
over, might  well  excite  a  kindly  feeling  to  at  least  some  of 
the  race. 


CtJP-BEAKERS  AT  THE  AnCIENT   PERSIAN   COURT. 

Josephus  tells  ns,*  that  as  Nehemiah  was  walking  one 
day  outside  the  walls  of  Susa,  some  strangers,  making  for 
the  city,  travel-worn  as  if  by  a  long  journey,  were  over- 
heard by  him  discoursing  in  his  OAvn  language — the 
Hebrew.     Nothing   touches   the   heart   in  a   strange  land 

»  Jo8.,  Ant.,  XI.  V.  6. 


EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH.  501 

more  than  one's  mother  tongue  ;  he  went  up  to  them, 
therefore,  and,  introducing  himself,  found  they  were  from 
Judah.  To  inquire  respecting  Jerusalem  and  its  people 
naturally  followed  ;  but  the  news  was  sad.  The  walls  of 
the  city  had  been  mostly  rebuilt,  and  the  town  gates  had 
been  set  up,  within  the  last  few  years,  but  the  representa- 
tions of  Rehum,  apparently  the  Persian  governor  of  Pales- 
tine, and  of  his  secretary,  had  led  to  a  command  from  the 
court  at  Susa,  to  stop  the  rebuilding  of  the  city  and  walls 
at  once.*  Armed  with  this  authority,  the  neighbouring 
races — infuriated  at  the  rejection  of  their  friendly  offers  of 
assistance,  by  Zerubbabel,  years  before,  and  still  more  so 
by  Ezra's  recent  insult,  in  sending  back  to  their  homes  all 
the  wives  of  non-Jewish  race  found  in  Jerusalem  and 
Judaea — had  attacked  Jerusalem,  and,  after  fierce  struggles, 
had  broken  down  the  newly  restored  walls  and  burned  the 
gates  with  fire.'^  Nor  was  this  all ;  the  country  was  pil- 
laged in  open  day,  and  many  Jews  carried  off  into  slavery 
by  nightly  surprises,  while  the  corpses  of  murdered  men 
were  often  found  on  the  roads.  At  such  a  recital  Nehe- 
miah  broke  into  tears,  amidst  which  his  grief  unburdened 
itself  in  the  cry  suggested  by  the  Psalms  and  Lamenta- 
tions:" '^How  long,  0  Jehovah,  wilt  Thou  permit  Thy 
people  to  suffer  ?  "  Lingering  at  the  gate,  in  his  sorrow, 
forgetful  of  the  lapse  of  time,  he  was  only  roused  when 
reminded  that  his  presence  was  needed  in  the  palace.  The 
king  was  about  to  sit  down  to  supper  ;  he  must  hurry  off, 
to  minister  as  cup-bearer.  Struck  with  his  dejection,  the 
king  noticed  it  to  him,  and,  having  heard  the  cause  of  his 

1  Ezra  iv.  9-23. 

2  Neb.  i.  3.    It  is  most  natural  to  ascribe  the  disaster  to  this  time. 

3  Ps.  xiii.   1.    Lam.   v.  20.    See  also  Deut.  xxxi.  17.    Ps.  xliv.  24;  Ixxxviii.  14" 
Ixxxix.  46. 


502  EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH. 

grief,  gave  him  permission  to  go  to  Palestine  and  put  right 
the  matters  that  troubled  him. 

Nehemiah^s  own  account  is,  that  one  of  his  brothers/ 
who  had  been  away  to  Palestine,  returned  with  a  dismal 
account  of  the  state  of  things  in  the  Jewish  community 
there.  Like  Daniel,  Ezra,  and  other  pious  Israelites  of 
the  Exile,  the  cup-bearer  was  eminently  a  man  of  prayer, 
and  carried  his  sorrow  at  once  to  God,  *^^  mourning,  fasting 
and  praying  for  days,  before  the  God  of  heaven.^'  '^  It  was 
no  passing  sorrow.  The  thought  of  the  city  of  the 
sepulchres  of  his  fathers  lying  waste,  ^  grieved  liis  soul. 
For  four  months — December  to  April  (Kislew  to  Nisan), 
it  lay  heavy  on  his  heart.  Then,  at  last,  as  he  was  giving 
wine  to  the  king,  who  was  sitting,  according  to  Persian 
custom,  with  his  favourite  queen,  the  sorrow  that  had  long 
clouded  a  face  formerly  cheerful,  was  noticed.  The  abject 
terror  natural  in  the  court  of  an  Eastern  despot,  is  marked 
by  Nehemiah's  statement,  that  when  the  change  in  his 
looks  thus  arrested  attention,  he  was  ^^  very  sore  afraid.'' 
But  his  touching  answer  disarmed  suspicion.  He  was  sor- 
rowing over  the  desolation  of  the  city  where  his  fathers  lay 
buried.  ^^For  what  then,"  said  Artaxerxes,  ''dost  thou 
make  request  ?"  "  So  I  prayed,^'  says  Nehemiah,  ''  to  the 
God  of  heaven.  And  I  said  to  the  king,  '  If  it  please  the 
king,  and  if  thy  slave  have  found  favour  in  thy  sight  ; 
that  thou  wouldest  send  me  to  Judah,  unto  the  city  of  my 
fathers*  sepulchres,  that  I  may  build  it.'^'* 

J  He  is  called  "|my  brother,"  Neh.  vii.  2.  2  Neh.  i.  4.  »  Neh.  ii.  3,  5. 

*  Neh,  ii.  1-6.  The  importance  of  the  office  of  cup-bearer,  is  seen  in  Herod.,  iii. 
34,  where,  incidentally,  a  vivid  picture  is  given  of  the  awful  despotism  of  the  Persian 
court.  Cambyses,  in  mere  sport,  shoots  the  son  of  the  cup-bearer  through  the  heart, 
and  then  asks  his  father,  "if  he  ever  saw  a  man  take  a  truer  aim."  Xenophon 
(Cyrop.,  i.  3)  speaks  of  the  cup-bearer  of  Astyages,  grandfather  of  Cyrus,  as  the 
most  favoured  of  the  officers  of  the  palace.    It  was  his  part  to  introduce  to  the  king 


EZRA    AND   NEHEMIAH.  503 

Leave  of  absence  for  an  indefinite  time  was  at  once 
granted,  the  great  income  of  his  office  being  apparently 
continued.'  Letters,  moreover,  were  given  him  for  the 
various  governors  of  provinces  on  the  road,  authorizing  his 
free  passage,  and  requiring  him  to  be  furnished  with  all 
aids.  Orders  were  further  put  in  his  hands  for  timber 
from  the  royal  forests/  for  the  city  gates,  the  governor's 
palace,  and  the  fortress  on  the  Temple  hill.  An  escort  of 
military  officers  and  of  cavalry  was  also  appointed  him,  and 
thus  protected,  he  passed  on  to  Jerusalem  as  a  high  official 
of  the  imperial  court,  taking  with  him  a  large  body  of 
attendants  and  personal  servants." 

That  one  of  their  brethren  should  have  received  such  an 
appointment  was  a  great  event  for  the  Jewish  community. 
Ezra  had  been  a  judge  and  magistrate  under  the  Persian 
governor,  but  Nehemiah  was  himself  the  Pasha  of  Jeru- 
salem and  Judah,  and  as  such  supreme.  No  inferior  officer 
could  have  carried  out  the  great  task  before  him.  A  city 
without  walls  and  gates,  was,  in  such  times,  the  prey  of 
every  assailant.  Zechariah*  had  fondly  pictured  a  time 
when  bulwarks  would  not  be  needed  ;  but  it  was  still  in 
the  future,  and  Nehemiah,  like  all  his  contemporaries,  saw 
that  they  were  essential  to  the  continued  existence  of  the 
community.  His  one  thought,  therefore,  was  to  fortify 
the  city  against  all  attacks. 

The  arrival  of  a  Jewish  governor  mortified  the  enemies 
of  Jerusalem,  as  much  as  it  gratified  its  members.  To  the 
dignity  and  absolute  authority  of  a  Pasha,  he  added  the 

tliose  who  had  important  business  with  him,  and  to  keep  back  such  as  had  matters 
of  less  weight.  This,  alone,  must  have  given  him  great  power.  The  emoluments, 
moreover,  seem  to  have  been  large. 

•  It  is  difficult,  otherwise,  to  understand  the  wealth  of  Nehemiah  while  in  Jadali. 
See  afterwards.  '  Neh.  ii.  8. 

»  Neh.  iv.  10,  16, 17,  23;  v.  10,  14-16;  iiii.  19.  *  Zech.  ii.  4. 


504  EZRA   AND   KEHEMIAH. 

influence  of  private  wealth,  which  he  used  with  a  noble 
generosity ;  relieving  his  brethren  of  the  burden  of  main- 
taining him  and  his  court.  Indeed,  during  all  his  tenure 
of  office,  he  not  only  made  no  requisitions,  and  levied  no 
imposts  for  his  rightful  dues;  but,  besides  maintaining  him- 
self and  his  numerous  household  and  visitors,  alike,  at  his 
own  cost,  kept  open  house  for  residents  and  retinue,  and 
was  princely  in  his  general  benefactions.' 

That  he  had  come  to  promote  the  interests  of  his  people, 
was  at  once  understood  by  friend  and  foe,  but  he  prudently 
kept  details  to  himself.  It  was  vital  that  his  plans  should 
not  be  prematurely  disclosed.  The  first  steps  toward  their 
accomplishment  were  therefore  taken  with  all  secrecy.  In 
the  darkness  of  the  third  or  fourth  night  after  his  arrival 
— for  he  lost  no  time — he  started  on  horseback,"  with  a  few 
attendants  on  foot,  to  examine  the  state  of  the  walls.  De- 
scending into  the  ravine  of  Hinnom  by  the  west  port,  some- 
where near  the  present  Jaffa  gate,  he  advanced  to  the  Spring 
of  the  Dragon,^ — a  spot  not  clearly  identified,  unless  it  refer 
to  a  popular  fancy  respecting  the  intermittent  flow  of  the 
waters  of  Siloam,  at  the  south-west  of  the  city.  To  gain 
this  point,  he  had  to  pass  the  gate  at  the  south-west  of  Zion, 
outside  which  were  thrown  the  dust  and  sweepings  of  the 
town.  He  wished  to  see  for  himself  the  state  of  the  walls 
and  gates.  Proceeding  along  by  Siloam,  eastward,  to  the 
king's  pool,  masses  of  ruin  blocked  the  way,  so  that  he  had 
to  dismount.  Pressing  on  afoot,  he  followed,  as  he  best 
could,  the  line  of  broken  fortifications,  till  he  had  made 
the  circuit  of  the  whole  city,  and  once  more  reached  the 
gate  through  which  he  had  ridden  out  on  his  survey.     So 

1  Neh.  V.  14-18.  2  Neh,  ii.  12. 

3  Geikie's  Life  and  Words  of  Christ,  vol.  ii.  p.  88. 


EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH.  505 

secretly  had  all  this  been  effected,  that  neither  the  high 
city  officials,  the  priests,  the  great  men,  nor  the  burghers, 
knew  anything  of  it.  But,  once  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  actual  state  of  affairs,  Nehemiah  forthwith  assem- 
bled the  principal  citizens,  and  announced  to  them  his 
resolution  to  rebuild  the  walls.  Nor  were  they  left  to 
question  or  hesitate.  Instant  action  was  required  ;  and  the 
summons  was  prom23tly  obeyed.  The  whole  wall  was  por- 
tioned off,  in  short  lengths,  to  different  bodies  of  volun- 
teers, to  the  rich  city  guilds,  and  to  wealthy  and  public- 
spirited  citizens,  who  undertook  to  restore  them.  The 
enthusiasm  of  the  governor  was  contagious.  He  believed 
that  God  was  with  him,  and  inspired  tlie  people  with  the 
same  confidence.  Still  more,  he  informed  them  that  he 
held  a  firman  from  the  Great  King '  sanctioning  all  that 
he  proposed.  All  classes  threw  themselves  into  the  work 
with  the  greatest  energy.  To  Eliashib,  the  high  priest, 
and  his  subordinates,  was  assigned  the  building  of  the 
sheep  gate,  at  the  north  end  of  the  east  wall.  The  men  of 
Jericho  were  to  build  the  piece  next.  The  guilds  of  the 
goldsmiths,  apothecaries,  and  merchants,'  had  their  sepa- 
rate tasks.  The  men  of  Tekoa  alone,  through  their  chiefs, 
ignobly  refused  '^  to  put  their  necks  to  the  Avork  of  their 
Lord.''^  The  Gibeonites  and  those  of  Mizpah,  apparently 
the  hill  Nebi  Samwil,  north  of  Jerusalem,  though  not 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  Nehemiah,  but  in  the  territory  of 
the  governor  of  Syria,*  cheerfully  took  the  share  allotted 
them.  Shallum,  the  municipal  chief  of  one-half  of  Jeru- 
salem, became  responsible,  with  his  daughters,  for  a  piece. ^ 
Even  the  Levites  had  a  share  allotted  them,  and  so  had  the 

»  Neh.  ii.  18.  »  Neh.  iii.  8,  31,  32.  •  Neh.  iil.  5. 

*  Neh.  iii.  7.  •  Neh.  iii.  12. 


506  EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH. 

priests  who  lived  in  the  country  round  Jerusalem.*  Thirty 
five  volunteers  are  named  who  accepted  and  completed  the 
parts  of  the  great  undertaking  committed  to  them.  The 
municipal  chiefs  of  the  second  half  of  Jerusalem;  the  people 
of  Zanoah,  south  of  Hebron  ; '  the  municipal  chief  of  the 
district  of  Mizpah  ;  of  the  half  district  of  Beth-zur,  north, 
of  Hebron  ;  ^  of  the  two  halves  of  the  district  of  Keilah, 
in  the  Hebron  mountains  ;  *  and  of  Mizpah  itself — all 
helped.  Town  and  country  shewed  themselves  alike  reso- 
lute in  the  great  task.  Its  distribution  into  sections  brings 
the  ancient  city,  as  they  toiled  to  fortify  it,  vividly  before 
us,  by  the  landmarks  named.  The  sheep  gate,  the  towers 
of  Meah  and  Hananeel,  the  fish  gate,  the  gate  of  the  old 
city,  the  broad  wall,  the  tower  of  the  furnaces,  the  king^s 
garden,  the  stairs  from  the  city  of  David,  the  sepulchres 
of  David  and  the  kings,  the  barracks  of  David's  "  mighty 
men,''  the  armoury,  the  upper  tower  of  the  king's  palace, 
the  guard-house,  where  Jeremiah  had  been  confined,  the 
out-lying  tower  of  Ophel,  the  quarter  of  the  Nethinim, 
and  the  higher  part  of  the  wall  at  the  corner,  successively 
rise  before  us ; — spots  once  so  well  known,  but  now  mere 
names  for  well-nigli  two  thousand  years. 

The  task  before  the  citizens  was  a  heavy  one  for  all.  To 
remove  the  mounds  of  rubbish  from  the  broken  parts  of 
the  walls,  and  dress  the  stones  afresh,  involved  immense 
labour ;  for  the  number  of  workmen  and  labourers  was 
limited  in  so  small  a  population,*  and  there  were  no  funds 
with  which  to  hire  outside  help.  Everything  had  to  be 
done  by  the  people  themselves.     The  whole  circuit  of  the 

i  Neh.  iii.  22  ;  xii.  28. 

'  Conder,  Handbook,  p.  411.    Keil  mentions  a  Za,nna,jvest  of  Jerusalem. 

a  Conder,  p.  407.  *  Ibid.,  p.  417. 

'  Neh.  iv.  2, 10. 


EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH.  807 

walls  needed  repair  or  entire  rebuilding,  and  the  gateways, 
when  finished,  required  huge,  broad-leaved  gates,  with  their 
massive  bars,  bolts,  and  locks.  The  thickness  and  height 
of  the  defences,  and  the  irregularities  of  the  ground,  made 
tlie  task  still  lieavier.  As  a  whole,  the  community  was  in 
an  admirable  mood,  but  the  oppressive  toil,  under  a  fierce 
sun  and  with  imperfect  appliances,'  soon  broke  down  not 
a  few,  even  before  the  rubbish  had  been  cleared  away.' 

Another  difficulty  was  even  more  serious.  While  some 
of  the  volunteer  labourers  and  workmen  were  well-to-do, 
others  depended  on  their  earnings,  and  in  the  present  case, 
no  wages  were  paid  to  any  one.  Many  were  thus  reduced 
to  the  direst  straits  to  support  themselves  and  their  fami- 
lies, and  pay  the  taxes  exacted  by  the  Persian  Government. 
That  they  did  not  withdraw  from  Neliemiah^s  service  and 
seek  remunerative  employment,  seems  to  shew  that  they 
were  pressed  for  the  work,  as  their  fathers  had  been  under 
Solomon,  and  dared  not  leave  it.  At  such  a  time,  uni- 
versal good  feeling  might  have  been  expected.  The  simple 
wants  of  Orientals  are  easily  satisfied.  There  were  rich 
men  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  any  Western  nation  a  fund  would 
have  been  raised  by  these  for  the  maintenance  of  their 
brethren,  toiling  for  the  common  good.  But  instead  of 
this,  the  wealthy  seized  the  chance  of  driving  shameful 
bargains  with  the  starving  workers.  In  spite  of  the  strict 
prohibition  of  usury,  by  the  Law,^  money  for  food  was 
doled  out  only  in  return  for  mortgages  on  the  small  farms, 
vineyards,  olive-yards,  and  houses,  of  the  peasant  labourers, 
or  for  the  personal  liberty  of  their  sons  and  daughters,  who 
thus  became  slaves.     To  get  bread  and  oil,  and  to  pay  the 

»  Baskets  filled  by  hand  are  still  used  in  the  East,  even  in  digging  out  huge  canal 
beds.  '  Neh.  iv,  10.  •  Exod.  xxu.  25.    Lev.  xxv.  3G. 


508  EZRA    AN-D   NEHEMIAfl. 

taxes,  debts  were  l!iiis  incurred  wbicli  could  never  be  met 
Children  and  land,  alike,  were  virtually  lost.  Conduct 
equally  disgraceful  ]i;id  been  shewn  to  the  exiles  first  car- 
ried off  by  Nebuchadnezzar.  Their  brethren  left  behind 
had  bought  up  tlieir  goods  and  property  for  a  trifle,  instead 
of  generously  paying  a  fair  value  for  them,  to  help  the 
unfortunates  in  the  land  of  their  banishment.  Human 
nature  is  very  much  the  same  everywhere,  but  I  do  not 
remember  another  instance  of  such  greed  of  money  and 
meanness  of  soul  as  these  two  cases  exhibited.  The  pro- 
fessions of  penitence  and  reform  under  Ezra  had  clearly 
been  worthless  in  too  many  cases — mere  waves  of  excited 
feeling,  very  soon  passing  away. 

Such  heartlessness  on  the  one  side,  and  misery  on  the 
other,  roused  the  generous  indignation  of  Nehemiah. 
Calling  together  the  money  lenders,  he  rebuked  them 
sternly,  and  then  summoned  them  to  appear  before  a 
general  assembly  of  the  citizens.  There  he  turned  on 
them  with  scathing  words.  He,  himself,  he  told  them, 
had,  to  his  utmost,  redeemed  Jewish  slaves  from  the 
heathen,  but  they  were  buying  and  selling  their  brethren. 
Let  them  at  once  cancel  all  their  bonds,^  and  give  back  the 
property  they  had  taken,  remitting  the  debts  due  to  them. 
If  they  could  be  paid  hereafter,  without  interest,  as  the 
debtors  were  able,  let  it  be  so  ;  if  not,  let  the  debt  be  a  free 
gift.  He,  liis  assistants,  and  his  retinue,  might  demand 
money  and  corn,  but  neither  he  nor  they  did  so.  Let  all 
that  was  needed  be  freely  advanced  to  every  one  now. 
Would  they  forget  the  fear  of  God,  and  bring  down  the 
reproach  of  the  heathen  on  the  whole  Jewish  community  ? 

'  Instead  of  "also  the  hundredth  part  of  the  money"  (Neh.  v.  11),  read  "remit 
this  exaction  of  a  pledge," 


EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH.  §09 

Forced  by  very  shame  to  comply,  the  offenders  consented  to 
follow  Nehemiah's  counsel,  and  were  bound  to  their  assent 
by  a  solemn  oath  administered  by  the  priests.*  "So  iet 
every  man  who  does  not  stand  to  his  promise,  be  shaken  by 
God  out  of  his  house  and  earnings,"  cried  Nehemiah,  shak- 
ing out  his  robe  as  he  did  so. 

Tlie  difficulties  from  without  were  no  less  formidable 
than  those  in  Jerusalem  itself.  The  unwise  narrowness  of 
Zerubbabel,  followed  by  the  still  harsher  dismissal  of  non- 
Jewish  wives  by  Ezra,  had  excited  a  furious  hatred  toward 
the  Hebrew  community.  Three  enemies,  especially,  threat- 
ened its  very  existence.  The  foremost  of  these  was  San- 
ballat,  "the  Horonite,"  or  inhabitant  of  Bethhoron, 
formerly  part  of  the  territory  of  Ephraim,^  but  in  Nehe- 
miah's  day  included  in  Samaria/  His  name  has  been 
thought  to  mean  "man  of  Neballat,"  a  village  about  four 
miles  north-west  of  Lydda/  and  about  fifteen  miles  slightly 
south-east  of  Joppa,  on  the  western  slope  of  the  central 
hills.^  He  appears  to  have  been  the  Persian  governor  of 
the  Samaritan  district,  or  at  least  to  have  held  some  civil 
or  military  comnumd.  Josephus  calls  him  a  Samaritan  or 
"Cuthean  "  by  birth,"  but,  in  any  case,  he  was  not  a  Jew. 
At  this  time  he  had  no  personal  relations  with  Jerusa- 
lem ;  but  he  subsequently  married  his  daughter,  Nicaso,  to 
Manasseh,  a  grandson  of  the  high  priest  Eliashib,  appar- 
ently while  Nehemiah  was  absent  in  Persia.'  It  is  not 
improbable  that  he  had  already  risen  to  be  the  Persian  gov- 
ernor on  the  north  of  Judah.  Energetic,  influential,  and 
keen  tongued,  he  was  the  leading  spirit  in   the  opposition 

»  Neh.  V.  12.  2  Josh.  xvi.  3,  5;  xviii.  13.  '  Bertheau. 

*  Kneucker,  Bib.  Lex.,  vol.  iv.  p.  30G.  •  See  vol.  ii.  p.  472. 

•  Jos.,  Ant.,  XI.  vii.  2,  8. 

»  Jos.,  Ant.y  XI.  vii.  2.    NeU.  xiii.  28.    Ewald,  vol.  v.  p.  21S. 


510  EZRA  AND  NEHEMIAH. 

to  Neliemiah  from  without.*  A  second  in  the  bitter  trium- 
virate was  Tobiah,  an  Ammonite,  originally,  it  would  seem, 
a  slave,'  but  now  in  a  high  position  as  satrap,  or  Persian 
resident,  in  Ammon,  across  the  Jordan.  Such  elevations, 
though  strange  to  us,  are  common  in  Eastern  despotisms. 
His  fierce  opposition  to  the  fortification  of  Jerusalem  ex- 
cited against  him  the  special  dislike  of  Nehemiah,  who 
seldom  mentions  his  name  without  contemptuously  adding, 
'*  the  slave.''  Unfortunately,  he  had  allies  of  high  social 
position  in  Jerusalem  itself ;  the  stern  puritanism  of  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah  being  resented  by  many  leading  families. 
Into  one  of  these — a  dignified  priestly  household — Tobiali 
married,  and  he  was  also  able  to  make  a  similar  union  for 
his  son.^  Through  these  channels  he  kept  up  communi- 
cations with  the  disaffected  party  within  the  walls,  and 
thus,  in  a  measure,  paralyzed  Nehemiah,  by  the  proof  of 
treachery  even  among  those  round  him,  from  whom  he 
should  have  received  the  most  hearty  support.  The  third 
open  enemy  was  Gashma,  or  Geshem,  '^'^  the  Arabian,"  *  who 
seems  to  have  been  chief  of  the  Arabs  south  of  Palestine, 
and,  as  Ewald  thinks,  possibly  the  founder  of  the  future 
Nabathean  kingdom.  For  the  time  he  was  an  active  ally 
of  Sanballat  and  Tobiah. 

On  receiving  intelligence  of  Nehemiah's  appointment  by 
the  Persian  court,  Sanballat  and  Tobiah  had  been  greatly 
annoyed,  but  they  did  not  dare  openly  to  oppose  the  firman 
of  Artaxerxes.^  Nor  did  they  believe  that  the  project  of 
rebuilding  the  walls,  already  broken  down,  perhaps  more 

»  Ezra  iv.  23 ;  Neh.  iv.  2;  Stanley,  vol.  lii.  p.  133  ;  and  W.  A.  Wright,  Diet,  of  Bible, 
vol.  ill.  p.  1522,  speak  of  Sanballat  as  a  Moabite,  making  "  the  Horonite  "  =  man  of 
Horonaim  in  Moab.  But  he  certainly  would  have  been  called  the  Moabite  had  he 
been  of  that  hated  race. 

a  Neh.  ii.  10, 19.  »  Neh.  vi.  3,  6,  12, 14,  17,  18  ;  xili.  4,  7. 

«  Neh.  ii.  19 ;  n.  1, 2,  a.  •  Neh.  ii.  10. 


EZRA    AND   NEHEMIAH.  511 

than  once,  since  the  Kcturn,  could  be  seriously  entertained 
by  so  feeble  a  community.  Mocking  its  weakness  before 
his  officials  and  the  Persian  garrison  of  Samaria,  Sanballat 
pretended  to  wonder  what  the  citizens  meant,  to  begin  such 
a  task.  '^  AVill  they  leave  it  in  the  hands  of  God  ?  Or 
raise  the  walls  by  offering  sacrifices  ?  Will  they  get  a 
miracle  done  for  them,  to  finish  the  walls  in  a  day  ?  Will 
they  make  the  rubbish  heaps  come  out  themselves,  as  if 
alive  '^"  '"■  You  don't  need  to  be  afraid,^^  answered  Tobiah, 
joining  this  ridicule;  ''a  jackal  climbing  up  over  any 
work  they  may  do,  will  knock  it  all  down  !  "  Taunts  and 
gibes  like  these  stung  Nehemiah  to  the  quick.  But  he  was 
not  the  man  to  be  turned  aside  by  a  laugh.  Uttering  a 
bitter  malediction  on  the  mockers,'  he  pressed  on  his  task 
more  vigorously  than  ever. 

Thanks  to  his  energy,  and  the  willing  zeal  of  the  people, 
great  part  of  the  ruins  was  cleared  away,  the  gaps  in  the 
walls  filled  up,  and  the  whole  enterprise  well  advanced. 
The  possibility  of  his  success  was  thus  no  longer  doubtful, 
if  his  progress  could  not  be  quickly  stopped  by  open  violence. 
A  league  was  therefore  formed  between  Sanballat,  Tobiah, 
the  Arabs,  the  Ammonites,  and  the  Philistines  of  Ashdod, 
to  attack  Jerusalem,  and  destroy  wdiat  had  been  done.  But 
Nehemiah,  well  served  by  his  spies,  posted  sentinels  and 
pickets,  and  ''  made  prayer  to  God,"  and  urged  on  the 
builders.  It  was  the  crisis  of  the  undertaking.  So  many 
workmen  being  withdrawn  to  furnish  guards,  day  and  night, 
the  officials  had  at  last  to  report  that  the  toil  of  clearing 
away  the  mounds  of  rubbish,  to  let  the  masons  get  to  work, 
and  of  carrying  the  stones  for  them,  had  completely  worn 
out  the  labourers,  and  that  the  building  of  the  wall  must 

'  Neh.  iv.  i-6. 


513  EZRA    AND    NEHEMIAH. 

stop.  Meanwhile,  Jews  from  tlie  country  districts  disclosed 
the  power  of  the  enemy  and  their  threatening  designs,  and 
urged  their  brethren  from  different  localities  to  return 
home,'  The  foe,  it  was  said,  would  burst  upon  them  sud- 
denly, and  put  an  end  to  the  work  by  a  general  massacre. 
But  Nehemiah  was  not  to  be  daunted.  Summoning  all  the 
men  able  to  bear  arms,  and  giving  them  swords,  spears,  and 
bows,  he  set  them  in  such  open  spaces  behind  the  walls  as 
were  weakest.  They  could  thus  guard  the  most  dangerous 
spots,  and  while  at  once  seeing  the  approach  of  the  enemy, 
also  shew  that  they  were  prepared  for  him.^  Nor  did  he 
omit  stirring  appeals  to  all,  to  fight  manfully  for  hearth 
and  altar.  Such  vigour  had  the  success  it  deserved.  The 
allies  soon  heard  of  the  measures  taken  to  baffle  them,  and, 
seeing  their  plans  discovered,  disbanded  their  men.  But 
there  was  no  relaxation  of  vigilance  on  the  part  of 
Nehemiah.  Half  of  the  people  were  kept  at  the  building 
of  the  walls,  from  the  earliest  dawn  till  the  appearing 
of  the  stars,"  their  swords  at  their  side  and  their  spears 
near  at  hand,  while  the  other  half,  fully  armed,  kept 
watch  behind,  their  leaders  with  them  ;  Nehemiah,  ever 
wakeful,  and  everywhere  present,  having  a  trumpeter 
at  his  side,  to  sound  an  alarm  on  the  instant,  if  needed. 
At  night  only  a  portion  of  the  guard  remained  on  duty, 
the  rest  taking  sleep,  to  be  ready  for  the  next  day. 
Neither  Nehemiah,  however,  nor  his  household,  nor  body- 
guard, ever  took  off  their  clothes.* 

Fired  by  such  enthusiasm,  "  the  people  had  a  mind  to 
work,"  and  the  walls  rapidly  drew  near  completion.  It 
only  remained  to  hang  the  great  two-leaved  doors  in  the 

'  I  have  incorporated  the  renderings  of  Neh.  iv.  12,  given  by  Herzfeld,  Bertheau, 
and  Keil.  2  Neh.  iv.  13. 

»  Neh.  iv.  21.    Hebrew.  ■*  Neh.  iv.  23. 


EZRA    AXD    XEHEMIAir.  513 

gate-spaces.  Sauballat  and  Tobiab,  liitherto  foiled,  deter- 
mined, therefore,  to  make  a  last  effort  to  effect  their  pur- 
2)ose.  Pretending  to  wish  a  conference  with  Nehemiah, 
they  invited  him  to  come  out  to  them,  to  Ono — the  present 
village  of  Ana — on  the  iMaritime  Plain,  about  thirty  miles 
north-west  of  Jerusalem,'  their  object  being  to  take  him 
prisoner.  This  transparent  device  was  repeated  four  times, 
but  the  only  answer  given  by  IN'ehemiah  was  that  he  could 
not  allow  the  work  to  cease  by  any  such  visit.  An  open 
letter  from  Sanballat,  i^retending  a  friendly  interest  in  the 
governor,  was  the  next  scheme,  liumours  were  everywhere 
afloat,  he  said,  that  rebellion  against  Persia  was  intended, 
Nehemiah  himself  designing  to  be  proclaimed  king,  as  soon 
as  the  walls  were  finished.  Propliets,  the  letter  went  on, 
had  been  appointed  by  him  to  prepare  the  people  for  this. 
It  Avas  desirable,  therefore,  that  he  should  come  out  and 
consult  with  Sanballat.  But  he  was  too  shrewd  to  be  thus 
easily  trapped.  There  Avas  no  truth,  he  said,  in  the  alleged 
reports.  They  were  only  inventions.  He  would  not' come. 
Yet  there  was  much  to  make  a  less  earnest  man  bleiich 
in  his  purpose.  Traitors  were  busy  within  the  city.  A 
number  of  prophets,  and  a  prophetess,  Noadiah,  had  been 
bribed  by  Sanballat  and  Tobiah,  to  stir  uj)  discontent 
among  the  citizens  and  hamper  Nehemiah.^  Some  of  tlic 
chief  citizens,  moreover,  influenced  by  Tobiah's  marriage 
connections,^  kept  up  an  active  correspondence  with  him, 
sending  him  letters  and  receiving  replies.*     Every  word  of 

*  Conder  and  Kiepert's  Map.  «  Neh.  vi.  14. 

3  Neh.  vi.  18.  Of  these,  Shecaiiiah  was  a  prominent  man  of  the  great  family  of 
Arab  (Ezra  ii.  5).  Meshuilam  (Neh.  iii.  4,  30)  was  one  of  the  helpers  in  repairing 
the  walls.  Eliashib,  the  high  priest,  was  also  allied  to  Tobiah  (Neh.  xiii.  4).  Tobiah 
means  "pleasing  to  Jehovah."  His  son's  name,  Johanan,  means  "given  by  Jeho- 
vah," so  that  it  is  the  equivalent  of  Theodore.  They  were  probably  Israelites  of  one 
Df  the  Ten  Tribes,  but  had  apparently  been  settled,  perhaps  for  generations,  in  Am- 
xuon  (Neh.  ii.  10).  *  Neh.  vi.  17. 

VOL.  VI.-33. 


614  EZRA   AN^D   NEHEMIAH. 

Nehemiah  was  reported  to  the  enemy.*  One  treacherous 
prophet,  shutting  himself  up  in  his  house,  as  if  in  terror  of 
his  life,  warned  the  governor  that  he  knew  of  his  murder 
in  the  night  being  determined,  and  urged  that  the  two 
should  retire  into  the  Holy  Place  of  the  Temple  for 
security,  and  shut  the  doors.  But  this  scheme  also  failed. 
'^  Should  a  man  in  his  position  flee  ?  "  replied  Nehemiah. 
Moreover,  the  Holy  Place  was  not  to  be  entered  by  a  lay- 
man. How  could  he,  therefore,  enter  it  and  live  ?  He 
would  not  go.' 

The  walls  having  at  last  been  finished,  the  gates  set  up, 
and  a  body  of  guards  for  them  and  those  for  the  Temple, 
duly  organized,^  Nehemiah  appointed  his  brother  Hanani- 
and  a  trusted  and  devout  officer  named  Hananiah,  the  com- 
mandant of  the  Persian  fortress  at  the  north-west  edge  of 
the  Temple  precincts,  as  joint  prefects  of  the  city,  in 
ordinary  times  the  Temple  guards  alone  protected  the 
sanctuary  and  its  grounds,  opening  and  closing  the  gate* 
But  at  such  a  crisis,  the  singers  and  the  Levites  were  told 
off  to  strengthen  them.  Orders  were  further  issued,  that 
the  gates  of  the  city  were  not  to  be  opened  till  the  sun  was 
high,  and  the  day  warders  had  mounted  guard,  in  place  of 
those  who  had  been  on  duty  through  the  night.  They,  in 
their  turn,  were  to  be  relieved,  after  the  gates  were  closed 
and  barred  at  sunset.  The  citizens,  moreover,  were  re- 
quired to  patrol  the  town  as  night  watchmen,  each  in  his 
own  quarter.* 

A  serious  difficulty,  however,  still  remained.  The  cir- 
cuit of  the  walls  was  great,  but  the  houses  within  were  few 
and  sparse,  so  that  wide  vacant  spaces  of  ruins  separated 

»  Neh,  vi.  19. 

«  Neh.  vi.  10-12.    For  "  to  save  his  life,"  read  "and  live  " 

•  1  Chron.  ix.  17-27 ;  xxvi.  12-19.  *  Neh.  vii.  Z. 


EZRA   AND   N^EHEMIAH.  515 

the  small  population  and  weakened  their  powers  of  defence. 
The  prudent  governor,  therefore,  resolved  to  increase  the 
number  of  citizens,  by  transferring  families  from  the 
country  to  Jerusalem,  that  their  dwellings  might  fill  up 
the  unsightly  gaps  in  the  streets,  and  the  number  of  bur- 
gesses able  to  man  the  walls  be  effectively  increased. 

A  public  register  of  the  whole  Jewish  community  in  the 
land,  carefully  drawn  up  under  Zerubbabel,  afforded  a 
trustworthy  basis  for  the  projected  measure.  To  make  it 
complete,  an  assembly  of  the  people  was  summoned,  that 
all  who  had  joined  the  colony  since  ZerubbabeFs  census 
might  be  added  to  it.'  The  time  chosen  was  the  seventh 
month — part  of  our  September  and  October — the  same 
month  as  that  in  which  the  great  public  assembly  had  been 
held,  years  before,  to  consecrate  the  new  altar,  and  restore 
the  long  interrupted  sacrifices.''  On  the  present  occasion, 
however,  it  was  determined  to  take  advantage  of  the 
gathering  of  the  people,  for  other  weighty  national  objects. 
Besides  the  filling  up  of  the  family  registration,  various 
measures  of  the  highest  importance  demanded  action. 

The  Puritan  fervour  which  had  led  to  the  Return,  though 
it  had  lost  much  of  its  deep  religious  feeling,  still  continued 
in  all  its  intensity  as  a  national  sentiment.  The  cessation 
of  Temple  worship  during  the  Exile,  and  the  abhorrence 
of  idolatry  which  had  sprung  up,  turned  attention  more 
chan  ever  before  to  the  sacred  writings  of  the  race.  The 
Law  was  already  the  object  of  superstitious  veneration  ; 
the  Temple  and  its  sacrifices  taking  only  a  second  place  in 
the  public  regard.  Schools  for  its  study,  established  by 
Ezra  and  his  disciples,  had  spread  widely  in  Babylon.     The 

»  Neh.  vii.  5.    Nehemiah  gives  the  regieter  taken  at  first  in  vii.  5-73.    Ezra  ii 
s  Bara  lU.  1. 


516  EZRA   AN^D   N^EHEMIAH. 

new  order  of  scribes  were  unceasing  in  their  efforts  to  in- 
doctrinate the  whole  people  with  what  they  believed  to  be 
its  teaching.  It  was  resolved,  therefore,  that  at  this  first 
public  gathering  of  Judah,  after  the  restoration  of  the  city 
walls,  tlie  reading  and  exposition  of  the  Law  should  have 
the  chief  place.  The  people  themselves  desired  it.  To 
attract  every  one,  a  great  feast  was  appointed  to  be  held 
for  the  solemn  dedication  of  the  newly  built  city  walls. 
On  the  day  fixed,  the  whole  population  assembled  at  Jeru- 
salem, even  the  women  leaving  their  wonted  seclusion,  and 
bringing  their  children  with  them.  Before  the  festival 
opened,  however,  a  request  was  formally  made  through  the 
elders,  that  the  Law  might  be  read  aloud  to  the  whole 
assembly,  by.  Ezra  and  his  assistants. '  All  were  intensely 
anxious  to  hear  the  words  that  God  had  spoken  from  the 
Mount  to  their  fathers. 

The  request  was  too  thoroughly  gratifying  to  the  Re- 
former to  be  for  a  moment  denied.  The  open  space  before 
the  water  gate,  on  the  south-east  of  the  Temple,  was  ap- 
pointed for  the  solemn  gathering,  and  thither,  at  the  time 
fixed,  Ezra  and  his  colleagues  presented  themselves.  A 
pulpit — the  first  of  which  we  know— had  been  erected  for 
them,  that  they  might  be  the  better  heard,  and  on  this 
Ezra  took  his  place  in  the  early  morning  ^  of  the  day  of 
the  seventh  new  moon — famous  from  of  old  for  its  feast  of 
trumpet-blowing,  as  specially  holy,'  and  from  the  remotest 
times  a  season  of  holy  assembly  and  cessation  of  work. 
Thirteen  priests  stood  around  him,  as  he  unrolled  from 
right  to  left  a  long  scroll  of  the  Law  brought  with  him 
from  ChaldaBa.     The  multitude,  till  then  sitting,  in  East- 

»  Neh.  viii.  3.  '  From  the  dawn,  or  "  light.''    Neh.  Tiii.8. 

3  I.ev.  xxiii.  22-25.    Num.  xxix.  1-6. 


EZRA    AND   NEHEMIAH.  517 

ern  f  j.shion,  on  the  ground,  insta-iitly  rose  at  the  sight  of 
the  Sacred  Book,  and  stood  reverently  to  hear  its  words. 
Prayer  fitly  opened  a  service  so  holy,  the  voice  of  Ezra  first 
breaking  the  silence  by  ^''blessing  Jehovah,  the  great 
God."  An  ancient  psalm  appears  to  have  supplied  the 
words — during  the  utterance  of  which  the  people  joined 
in  adoration,  with  uplifted  hands  and  loud  Aniens,  bowing 
their  heads,  and  worshipping  with  their  faces  to  the  earth, 
at  each  pause  and  at  the  close.  Ezra  then  read  a  portion 
of  the  Law,  after  which  a 
body  of  thirteen  Levites, 
skilled  in  its  exposition,  as 
disciples  of  the  great  scribe, 
explained  its  meaning '  to 
the  vast  crowd,  amidst 
which  they  were  apparently 
stationed  at  various  points.'^ 
A  second  portion  was  then 
read   by   Ezra,    followed 

,  ,  1  ,  .         q  Bowing  the  Head. 

oy  a   second    explanation, 

and  thus  the  time  passed,  from  sunrise  till  the  fierce  mid= 
day  heat  compelled  a  temporary  cessation.  Nothing  could 
exceed  the  deep  attention  of  the  people.  For  at  least  six 
hours  they  stood  with  covered  heads,  eagerly  listening  to 
Ezra,  and  to  the  scribes  who  commented  on  the  sacred 
text  he  read."  The  excitement  was  intense.  In  past  ages 
their  fathers  had  neglected  the  holy  words  spoken  to  the 
nation  by  God,  or  written  by  His  inspiration,  and  this  had 
brought  on  them  all  the  misery  of  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 

\  Expanding  and  simplif ying  the  words.    Vitringa,  De  Synag.  Vet.,  p.  420. 
2'  Neh.  viii.  4-7.  3  Neh.  viii.  8. 

*  Vitringa  says  it  had  always  been  the  custom  to  stand  during  the  reading  of  the 
Law,  but  this  is  not  stated  in  Scripture.    De  Synag.  Vef.,  p.  167. 


518 


EZRA   AND   KEHEMIAH. 


slavery.  Henceforward  there  should  be  no  such  terrible 
mistake.  The  Temple  and  its  services  might  still  be  dear 
to  them,  but  not  more  so  than  the  knowledge  and  observ- 
ance of  the  Law.  The  scribes  became  from  this  time  the 
foremost  body  in  the  land.  It  had  hitherto  boasted  of  its 
Temple :   it   would  henceforth  boast   also   of  the   Torah. 

Modern  history  offers  as 
the  most  vivid  parallel  to 
the  scene,  the  eagerness 
of  England  or  Germany 
for  the  Scriptures  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  when 
they  were  restored  by  the 
Reformers  to  their  right- 
ful place  in  the  Church, 
after  the  neglect  of  cen- 
turies. 
RoLi.  OP  A  Book.  rpj^^     Contrast    between 

their  own  practice  and  the  requirements  of  the  Law,  as  laid 
down  by  the  scribes,  alarmed  all.  It  seemed  as  if  calami- 
ties like  those  from  which  they  had  suffered  in  the  past, 
must  visit  them  again  for  their  shortcomings.  Far  and 
near  rose  loud  weeping.  Confessions  and  lamentations 
filled  the  air.  But  it  was  no  time  for  sorrow  ;  that  would 
come  after.  It  was  a  day  holy  to  Jehovah  ;  there  must  be 
no  tears  to  mar  its  joy.  Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  the  Leviti- 
cal  Rabbis,  his  colleagues,  alike  protested  against  any  sad- 
ness. They  must  rather  hold  a  festival,  and  eat  the  fat, 
and  drink  the  sweet,  and  send  portions  to  them  who  had 
none. 

The  next  day  saw  the  chiefs  of  clans,  the  priests,  and 
Levites,  collected  round  Ezra  for  a  further  study  of  the 


EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH.  619 

Law.  The  portion  read  included  the  account  of  the  Feast 
of  Tabernacles,'  with  its  preparation  of  booths  of  twigs 
and  branches.  It  was  the  very  time  for  this  great  festival 
being  held.  They  would  forthwith  celebrate  it  with  all 
exactness.  Orders  were,  therefore,  sent  through  the  whole 
country,  that  the  people  should  gather  from  the  hill-sides, 
branches  of  olives,  oleasters  or  wild  olives,  and  myrtles, 
and  palms,  and  bring  them  to  Jerusalem,  to  make  the 
booths  required.  Originally  commemorating  the  wilder- 
ness life  in  tents,  it  had  become,  in  later  times,  the  great 
harvest  festival  of  the  year,  to  express  the  national  grati- 
tude to  Jehovah  for  His  bounty  in  creating  for  man,  once 
more,  the  fruits  of  the  earth.  The  enthusiasm  was  bound- 
less. Huts  were  raised  everywhere  ;  on  the  flat  roofs,  in 
the  courts  of  the  houses,  in  the  Temple  precincts,  and  in 
the  vacant  spaces  before  the  city  gates.  The  feast  had 
been  celebrated  at  the  consecration  of  Solomon's  Temple," 
and  in  the  first  year  of  the  Return,"  but  never  so  exactly, 
in  all  its  legal  details,  or  so  universally,  since  the  time  of 
Joshua.* 

Its  successive  days  passed  amidst  high  rejoicing;  the 
mornings  devoted  to  hearing  more  of  the  Law  read  by 
Ezra;  the  rest  of  the  day  to  festivities.  At  last,  after  a 
week  of  gladness,  it  closed  with  a  solemn  assembly  of  the 
whole  people,  all  work  ceasing  and  solemn  sacrifices  being 
offered.  * 

The  people  were  not,  however,  allowed  to  separate  with- 
out a  formal  renewal  of  the  covenant  with  Jehovah,  so 
often  made  before  by  their  fathers.  Two  days  after  the 
close  of  the  feast,®  a  solemn  fast  was  held  ;  the  multitude 

>  Lev.  xxiii.  39-43.  2  2  Chron.  vii.  9.    1  Kings  viii.  65, 

s  Ezraiii.  4.  *  Neh.  viii.  17. 

*  Neh.  viii.  18.    Lev,  xxiii,  36.  •  Neh.  ix.  1. 


620  EZRA   A]^D   NEHEMIAH. 

assembling,  clad  in  sackcloth,  with  earth  on  their  heads, 
as  a  sign  of  mourning.  Once  more,  portions  of  the  Law 
were  read  aloud,  but  only  for  three  hours,  not,  as  hitherto, 
for  six.  Public  confession  by  all,  of  their  sins  and  the  sins 
of  their  fathers,  succeeded.  This  ended,  the  scribes  as- 
cended a  special  platform  erected  for  them,*  and  opened 
the  service  of  the  day  by  ''^crying  with  a  loud  voice  to 
Jehovah,  their  God."  The  vast  assembly  was  then  sum- 
moned to  rise  from  the  ground  and  praise  the  Lord  in  a 
triumphal  chant,  led,  no  doubt,  by  the  Levitical  choir  and 
musicians.  One  of  the  leaders,  probably  Ezra,  now  led  the 
multitude  in  prayer,  recounting  the  wonderful  ways  of  God 
to  His  people  in  the  past,  their  hardness  of  heart.  His  pity- 
ing mercy,  their  frequent  apostasy  and  just  punishment. 
They  were  slaves  in  the  land  promised  to  their  fathers.  It 
yielded  a  large  revenue  to  the  kings  (of  Persia)  whom  God 
had  set  over  them  for  their  sins.  These  potentates  indeed, 
he  continued,  did  as  they  pleased,  not  only  with  the  prod- 
uce of  the  soil,  but  with  the  population  at  large,  taking 
them  at  their  will  to  serve  in  their  wars,  and  carrying  off 
their  cattle  for  their  baggage  wagons  and  for  food,  so  that 
the  land  was  in  great  distress.  All  this  humiliation  and 
misery  was  the  just  punishment  for  having  forsaken 
Jehovah.  The  whole  people  must,  therefore,  once  more 
solemnly  renew  their  covenant  to  serve  Him,  and  Him  only, 
that  He  might  send  them  prosperity. 

A  formal  document  had  been  prepared,  binding  all 
henceforth  to  fidelity  to  the  national  faith,  and  to  this 
the  leaders  of  the  community  forthwith  appended  their 
signatures,  beginning  with  Nehemiah  as  the  head  of  the 
little  state.     Princes,  Levites,  priests,  and  the  chiefs  of  the 

»  Neh.  ix.  4. 


EZRA   AKD   KEHEMIAH.  621 

clans  and  sub-clans,  as  representatives  of  the  people, 
followed.  The  whole  assembly,  moreover,  took  an  oath  to 
obey  the  Law  of  Moses — people,  priests,  Levites,  the  guard 
of  the  Temple  gates,  the  singers,  the  Nethinim,  and  the 
Temple  slaves.  Many  descendants  of  the  Hebrews,  left  in 
Palestine  at  the  time  of  the  Captivity,  took  this  opportunity 
to  unite  themselves  formally  with  Judah,  definitely  sepa- 
rating from  all  such  relations  to  the  heathen  population  of 
the  country,  as  compromised  their  ceremonial  or  legal 
purity. 

The  covenant  thus  adopted  with  a  solemn  oath,  which 
was  heightened  by  a  curse  on  its  transgression,  embodied 
tlie  strict  views  of  the  Law  advanced  by  Ezra  and  his  col- 
leagues. No  intermarriage  Avith  non-Israelites  was  to  be 
tolerated.  No  purcliases  were  to  be  made  on  a  Sabbath  or 
holy  day,  and  on  these  seasons  no  goods  or  provisions  were 
to  be  exposed  for  sale  by  the  heathen  traders  from  outside. 
The  land  was,  further,  to  be  left  fallow  on  the  seventh 
year,  as  commanded  in  Exodus,'  and  all  debts  were  to  be 
then  remitted.  That  year,  was,  in  fact,  to  limit  the  claims 
of  a  creditor.  In  Exodus'  it  had  been  ordained  that  a 
voluntary  tax  of  half  a  shekel  should  be  paid  yearly  by 
every  Israelite  over  twenty,  for  the  support  of  the  Temple  ; 
it  was  now  enacted  that  this  tax  should,  henceforward,  be 
carefully  levied,  but  in  consideration  of  the  general  j^overty, 
its  amount  was  reduced  from  a  half  to  the  third  of  a 
shekel.^  The  funds  thus  secured  were  to  provide  for  tlie 
shew-bread,  the  meal  offerings,  and  burnt  offerings — in- 
cluding those  on  the  Sabbatlis,  new  moons,  and  periodical 
feasts — and  also  for  thank  offerings  presented  in  the  name 

»  Exod.  xxiii.  11.  2  Exod.  xxx.  13. 

3  Still  paid  in  the  time  of  Christ.     Alatt.  xvii.  34. 


522  EZRA   AND   KEHEMIAH. 

of  the  congregation,  and  public  trespass  offerings,  with 
other  expenses  of  the  Temple.  Moreover,  to  secure  a 
regular  supply  of  wood  proper  for  the  altar,  the  priests, 
Levites,  and  people  were  assigned  their  respective  turns  in 
bringing  it  to  the  Temple.  Similar  arrangements  were 
also  made  for  bringing  thither  the  first  fruits  of  the  soil 
and  of  fruit  trees,*  for  presenting  first-born  sons  '  and  the 
first-born  of  cattle,  that  they  might  be  redeemed,'  and  for 
sending  in  the  firstlings  of  sheep  and  goats,  the  fat  of 
which  was  to  be  burnt  on  the  altar,  while  the  flesh  went  to 
the  priests."  Measures  were  also  taken  for  the  payment  of 
the  first  fruits  of  coarse  meal  ^  and  heave  offerings  of  wheat 
and  barley "  and  of  other  fruits  and  produce,  including 
wine  and  oil.'  These  were  all  to  be  brought  to  the  priest, 
that  they  might  be  stored  in  the  proper  chambers  in  the 
Temple  precincts,  whence  they  were  to  be  served  out  to  the 
priests,  for  their  support. 

In  the  same  way  the  tithes  were  to  be  brought  in  for  the 
sustenance  of  the  Levites  on  duty  in  Jerusalem,  members 
of  the  order  in  country  towns  being  cared  for  from  the 
same  source,  by  other  arrangements.  To  secure  exactness, 
a  priest  was  to  attend,  with  a  Levite,  when  these  payments 
were  delivered,  and  was  to  see  that  a  tenth  of  all  tithes  was 
handed  over  to  the  priests  as  a  body,  to  supplement  their 
other  revenues.  Similarly,  the  people  and  the  Levites  were 
to  deliver  at  the  Temple  all  heave  offerings  of  grain,  wine, 
and  oil,  to  be  put  away  in  the  sacred  storehouses  ;  since  the 
priests.  Temple  guards,  and  singers,  for  whose  sustenance 
they  were  in  a  measure  to  serve,  were  employed  in  the  holy 

»  Exod.  xxiii.  19  ;  xxxiv.  26.    Deut.  xxvi.  2.  *  Num.  xviii.  15. 

'  Exod.  xiii.  12.    Num.  xviii.  15.  *  Num.  xviii.  17 

*  Num.  XV.  20.  •  Ezra  vi.  9. 
"  Num.  xviii.  12. 


EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH.  523 

bounds,  and  the  sacred  vessels  in  which  part  of  them  was 
to  be  offered,  were  also  kept  in  the  Temple. 

Such  was  the  covenant  now  entered  into  by  the  whole 
community.  In  former  times,  similar  transactions  had 
exclusively  referred  to  general  fidelity  to  Jehovah  ;  the 
minuteness  with  which  the  interests  of  the  Temple,  the 
priests,  the  Levites,  and  all  the  Temple  officials,  were  now 
guarded,  marked  the  overpowering  influence  and  authority 
of  Ezra,  and  the  different  spirit  of  the  age. 

These  matters  being  settled,  the  way  was  at  last  clear  * 
to  carry  out  the  change  already  projected,  of  transplanting 
part  of  the  country  population  to  Jerusalem,  to  add  to  its 
dignity,  and  guard  it  against  surprise,  by  providing  a 
sufficient  force  of  men  able  to  bear  arms,  for  its  defence. 
The  delay  had  been  caused  by  the  determination  that  only 
families  of  pure  Jewish  blood  should  be  allowed  to  become 
citizens.  The  prophets  had  continually  dwelt  on  this  as  a 
characteristic  of  the  holy  city  ^  in  the  good  times  coming, 
and  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  were  only  too  eager  to  secure  the 
fulfilment  of  such  predictions.  The  genealogies  of  the 
whole  community  throughout  the  country  required  strict 
examination,  to  secure  a  complete  list  of  all  who  were  of 
unblemished  Hebrew  descent.  This  having  been  obtained 
after  much  labour,  lots  were  cast  by  all  the  rural  popula- 
tion, and  every  tenth  family  thus  selected,  was  required  to 
break  up  its  home  and  remove  permanently  to  Jerusalem. 
Some,  however,  it  would  seem,  on  whom  the  lot  fell,  were 
unwilling  to  go,  but  the  greater  number  cheerfully  acqui- 
esced in  the  change  of  home  demanded,  their  ready  loyalty 
to  the  capital  gaining  them  the  plaudits  of  the  people  at 
large.      Such   of   the   Nethinim   and   the   descendants   of 

»  Neh.  xi.  2  Joel  iii.  17.    Tea.  xxxv,  8  ;  Hi.  1.     Nah.  i.  15.    Zech.  xiv.  21,  etc. 


524  EZRA   AN^D   NEHEMIAH. 

Solomon's  slaves  as  did  not  already  live  in  Jerasalem, 
appear  to  have  been  transplanted  from  the  country  at  the 
same  time,  to  the  suburb  of  Ophel,  south  of  the  Temple, 
but  a  great  number  of  priests  and  Levites  were  allowed 
to  remain  in  different  towns,  where  portions  of  land  had 
been  assigned  them.'  Yet,  amidst  all  these  changes,  signs 
of  the  national  subjection  remained  on  every  hand  ;  for 
Levites,  singers,  and  people,  had  each  an  official  set  over 
them,  to  watch  after  the  interests  of  the  Persian  king.'* 

It  only  now  remained,  to  dedicate  with  fitting  solemnity, 
the  city  walls — raised  amidst  so  much  opposition,  with  so 
loyal  a  devotion.  To  make  the  ceremony  more  imposing, 
messengers  were  sent  through  the  land  to  bring  to  Jeru- 
salem all  the  Levites — the  ordinary  ministers  of  the 
Temple — the  musicians,  with  their  cymbals,  harps,  and 
lyres,  and  the  singers,  in  their  three  great  divisions.^  These 
last  had  to  be  summoned  from  the  '^ circle"  of  the  Jordan 
round  Jericho,  from  Netopha,  fifteen  miles  south  of  Jeru- 
salem, from  Betli  Gilgal,  eighteen  miles,  and  from  Geba, 
seven  miles  nortli  of  it,  and  from  Azmaveth,  a  place  now 
unknown.  Open  villages  had  been  built  by  the  different 
choral  fraternities  in  these  districts,  which  lay  near  enough 
to  Jerusalem  to  make  their  periodical  attendances  in  the 
Temple  easy.  In  further  preparation  for  the  great  event 
the  Levites,  now  minutely  strict  in  their  rites,  on  their 
arrival  in  the  holy  city,  purified  not  only  themselves,  but 
tlie  people,  the  gates,  and  the  walls,  by  sacrifices,  that  no 
ceremonial  shortcoming  in  the  least  detail  might  lessen  the 
sacredness  of  the  proceedings. 

On  the  appointed  day,  N'ehemiah  himself  took  the  lead 
in  the  great  celebration.     The  broad  top  of  the    walls — - 

I  Neh.  xi.  20.  «  Neh.  xi.  24.  3  Neh.  xii.  34. 


EZRA    AND   NEHEMIAH.  625 

built  with  a  parapet  as  now — to  allow  fighting  men  to 
defend  them  in  case  of  a  siege — was  fitly  chosen  for  the 
scene  of  an  impressive  display.  Assembling  the  chiefs  of 
the  priestly  clans,  the  Levites,  and  the  people,  he  mar- 
slialled  them  in  two  great  divisions,  which  advanced  in 
opposite  directions,  to  meet  at  the  open  space  of  the  Tem- 
ple precincts  after  going  round  the  circuit  of  the  walls. 
At  the  head  of  one  walked  Nehemiah,  at  that  of  the  otlier 
Ezra,  the  two  leaders  of  the  community.  A  great  choir, 
giving  thanks,  and  praising  and  blessing  God  with  songs 
and  music,  followed  in  each  procession.  The  chiefs  of  the 
priests,  the  Levites,  and  the  laity  came  next — the  priestly 
order  in  two  selected  divisions.  Then  followed  other 
notable  laymen  of  Judah  and  Benjamin.  Behind  these 
walked  two  other  bodies  of  priests,  blowing  the  sacred 
horns.'  Then  came  a  body  of  Levite  singers  and  musi- 
cians, the  latter  with  the  instruments  known  as  invented 
or  introduced  by  David.  All  marched  in  their  robes  and 
vestments,  or  festive  apparel,  filling  the  air  with  loud 
rejoicings,  till  the  two  processions  met  at  last  in  the  open 
space  before  the  Temple.  There  the  whole  participants  in 
both,  united  in  a  chorus  of  praise  and  thanksgiving,  the 
voices  of  the  singers  rising  loud  and  clear  above  tlie 
harps  and  cymbals.*  Then  followed  great  sacrifices, 
offered  by  the  priests  on  the  huge  altar  before  the  Holy 
Place  in  the  Temple,  and  with  this  the  solemnities  closed. 
The  people  were  beside  themselves  for  joy,  their  loud 
cries  of  gladness  filling  the  air,  even  to  the  distant  sur- 
rounding hills. 

The  Jerusalem  thus  reconstituted  was,  however,  only  a 
very  small  town,  according  to  our  ideas,  for  even  the  city 
1  Neb.  zii.  41.  >  Neh.  xii.  42. 


536  EZRA   AND   I^EHEMIAH. 

of  the  present  day  encloses  within  its  walls  no  more  than 
about  two  hundred  acres,  while  Hyde  Park  contains  three 
hundred  and  eighty-eight,  and  is  thus  nearly  twice  as  large. 
But  Nehemiah's  Jerusalem  was  much  smaller  than  the 
modern  Jerusalem,  for  it  did  not  extend  round  what  is 
now  called  Zion,  or  over  the  stretch  along  the  whole  north 
of  the  city,  known  in  Jewish  days  as  Bezetha.  Yet  even 
within  these  narrow  limits,  Nehemiah  tells  us,  there  was 
much  unoccupied  ground.  "  The  city  was  large  and 
great,^^  he  says,  ^^  but  the  people  were  few  therein,  and  the 
houses  were  not  builded.^'  If,  therefore,  we  estimate  the 
population  at  ten  thousand,  it  would  be  equivalent  to  about 
fifty  people  to  the  acre,  including  the  large  space  of  the 
Temple  enclosure,  which  was  uninhabited,  and  the  space 
occupied  by  public  buildings.  Its  growth,  moreover,  was 
very  slow  till  the  later  years  of  Herod  the  Great,  when  a 
firm  government  and  the  long  continuance  of  peace,  added 
to  the  supreme  attractions  of  the  Temple,  which  drew 
innumerable  pilgrims,  gave  it  a  prosperity  it  had  never  had 
before.  Yet,  even  at  its  highest  good  fortune,  it  was, 
necessarily,  from  the  natural  limits  of  its  site,  a  verj^ 
email  town. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

THE   PROPHET   MALACHI. 

The  great  Dedication  Festival  of  the  new  walls  of  Jeru^ 
salem  is  the  last  incident  recorded  of  the  first  j^eriod  of 
Nehemiah's  governorship.  After  he  had  been  twelve  years 
absent  from  Persia,  the  wear  of  mind  and  body  told  on 
him,  and  a  temporary  furlough,  during  which  he  could 
return  to  his  royal  master  at  Ecbatana,  or  Shushan,  and 
render  an  account  of  his  high  trust,  was  desirable.  Every- 
thing appeared  to  be  quiet  and  safe  in  Judah  ;  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem  were  built,  the  city  increasingly  prosperous  from 
tlie  late  addition  to  its  population,  the  Temple  worship 
established  in  ceremonial  completeness,  and  the  people 
pledged  by  solemn  covenant  to  uphold  it.  They  had  even 
gone  further.  Public  readings  of  the  Law,  which  after- 
wards developed  into  the  great  institution  of  the  syna- 
gogue, had  become  a  fixed  custom  ;  and  after  one  of  these 
the  people  had  voluntarily  abjured  any  close  relations  with 
neighbours  of  heathen  descent,  including  Ammonites  and 
Moabites,'  as  if  desirous  of  shewing  their  fidelity  to  all 
Levitical  requirements.  Nehemiah  had  no  sooner  left  for 
Persia,  however,  than  the  worthlessness  of  these  professions 
became  only  too  apparent.  In  spite  of  the  presence  of 
Ezra  in  Jerusalem,  it  was  seen  that  a  reformation  enforced 
by  the  civil  power,  rather  than  the  fruit  of  individual  con- 

>  Neh.  ziii.  1.    Deut.  xxiii.  'd.    Num.  asii.  2. 


528  THE  PROPHET  MALACHI. 

viction,  had  no  permanent  vitality.  The  tithes  doe  to  the 
Temple,  the  Levites,  and  the  priests,  were  not  delivered, 
and  the  greatest  distress  was  thus  caused  to  all  who  de- 
pended on  them  for  maintenance.  The  choristers,  the 
guards  of  the  gates,  and  the  ordinary  Levites,  alike,  were 
comj)elled  to  go  back  to  their  homes  and  cultivate  their 
fields  for  a  living.  Public  worship  was  thus  interrupted, 
and  the  Temple,  forsaken  by  its  ministers,  was  neglected 
by  the  people.'  Nor  was  the  refusal  to  pay  tithes  the  only 
sign  of  an  altered  spirit  among  the  people.  The  Sabbath 
was  profaned,  both  in  town  and  country  ;  wine-presses  were 
busy  in  its  sacred  hours,  and  the  roads  and  fields  dotted 
with  workers,  taking  sheaves  to  the  barn  on  their  heavily- 
laden  asses.  Jerusalem  itself  was  disturbed  by  a  Sabbath 
fair,  to  which  loads  of  wine,  grapes,  figs,  and  much  else 
were  carried  in  during  the  sacred  hours.  Phoenician  fisher- 
men exposed  for  sale  their  catch  off  the  coasts,  and  traders 
from  Tyre  displayed  their  countless  wares.  After  all  the 
professed  zeal  to  put  an  end  to  mixed  marriages,  things 
were  rapidly  drifting  to  almost  a  worse  condition  than  of 
old.  Not  a  few  husbands  deserted  their  Jewish  wives  for 
Philistine,  Ammonite,  or  Moabite  women;''  and  the  chil- 
dren of  these  marriages  had  already  sliewn  by  their  broken 
dialect — half  Philistine,  half  Hebrew — how  soon  they 
would  cease  to  take  pride  in  anything  Jewish.  The  very 
priests  had  rapidly  lost  their  high  tone.  Their  irrever- 
ence, indifference,  and  worldliness  shocked  the  thoughtful.' 
Moneyed  men  once  more  shewed  themselves  the  grinding 
and  oppressive  tyrants  of  the  poor.*  Everything  that  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah  had  effected  was  well-nigh  undone. 

»  Neh.  xiii.  10, 11.  a  Mai.  ii.  10-14. 

9  Mai.  i.  6, 9, 10.  «  Mai.  iii.  5. 


THE  PROPHET  MALACHI.  529 

To  this  sad  state  of  things  wo  owe  the  appearance  of  the 
last  of  tlie  prophets,  known  to  iis  as  Mahichi,  which,  how- 
ever, may  have  been  his  title,  rather  than  his  name.  It 
means  ''  my  messenger,"  and  hence  the  Greek  Bible  trans- 
lates the  first  verse,  ^^by  the  hand  of  His  messenger,"  or 
*' angel,"  which  led  some  of  the  Fathers  to  think  that 
Malachi  was  not  a  man  at  all,  but  an  angel  from  heaven. 
The  Rabbis,  however,  are  less  fanciful,  and  indulge  in 
various  opinions  respecting  his  identity  and  birthplace. 
Thus,  it  is  said  by  some,  that  he  Avas  born  at  Sopha,  in 
Zebulon  ;  by  others,  that  he  was  Mordecai,  of  whom  we 
read  in  Esther ;  and  by  still  others,  in  turn,  that  he  was 
Zechariah,  or  Haggai,  this  last  prophet  being,  also,  called 
the  '^  messenger  of  Jehovah."'  He  has  most  commonly, 
however,  been  identified  with  Ezra,  who,  it  is  affirmed, 
came  back  from  Babylon  when  he  was  a  hundred  and  thirty 
years  old,  and  delivered  this  prophecy.  The  seer,  whoever 
he  was,  must  have  been  a  contemporary  of  Nehemiah,  for 
the  sins  he  denounces — breaking  the  Law  by  marrying 
alien  wives,  keeping  back  tithes  and  offerings,  and  similar 
offences  against  the  Law — are  the  same  as  are  denounced 
by  the  Jewish  Pacha.  He  must,  moreover,  have  come  for- 
ward after  Haggai  and  Zechariah,  for  he  makes  no  mention 
of  the  restoration  of  the  Temple  as  a  work  still  to  be  com- 
pleted. Nor  does  Ezra  speak  of  him.  The  Captivity,  as 
a  thing  long  past,  is  not  alluded  to,  and  the  Temple  service 
is  treated  as  in  full  operation.  The  name  *'Pehah,"  more- 
over, which  is  a  Persian  title  identical  with  that  used  of 
Nehemiah,'  is  applied  by  ^'Malachi"  to  the  governor  of 
Jerusalem.  The  prophecy  must,  therefore,  have  been 
written   some    time   after   the   return    of    Nohemiah  from 

»  Hag.  i.  13.  >  Neh.  xii.  26.    Mai.  i.  8. 

VOL.  VI.-84 


630  THE  PROPHET  MALACHI. 

Persia,  in  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  about  the 
year  420  B.C. 

There  had  been  others  of  the  sacred  order,  and  eyen 
prophetesses,  since  the  days  of  Haggai  and  Zechariah,  but 
they  had  either  opposed  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  or  failed  to 
secure  commanding  influence.  In  Malachi,  however,  the 
ancient  seers  had  once  more  a  worthy  representative. 
Clearly  realizing  the  wants  of  the  time,  fearless  in  his 
reproof,  and  stern  in  his  demands  and  denunciations,  he 
was  no  less  striking  in  his  vivid  anticipations  of  the  coming 
of  the  Messiah.  Hitherto,  this  Promised  Deliverer  had 
been  awaited  as  a  royal  descendant  of  David ;  but  Malachi 
announces  Him  as  no  other  than  Jehovah  Himself,  in  the 
person  of  the  Messenger  of  His  Covenant.^  The  prophet 
seems  to  have  stood  to  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  in  the  same 
relation  as  that  of  Isaiah  to  Hezekiah,  or  Haggai  to  Zerub- 
babel,  and  shewed  himself  a  powerful  ally.  In  his  words 
we  hear  for  the  last  time  the  tone  of  the  ancient  seers. 

His  brief  prophecy  opens  with  a  tender  allusion  to  the 
love  shewn  towards  Judah,  in  the  past,  by  Jehovah,  as 
proved  especially  by  the  different  treatment  extended  to  it 
and  to  Edom,  though  Jacob  and  Esau,  as  twin  brothers, 
might  have  expected  equal  favour  to  be  shewn  their 
descendants.  Yet  Judah  had  been  unfaithful  to  its 
Heavenly  Father  !     What  ingratitude  could  be  so  terrible ! 

"I.  2.  'I  have  loved  you,'  ^  says  Jehovah.  Yet  ye  say, '  In  what  hast 
Thou  loved  us  ?  '" 

Jehovah  answers  : 

"  Is  not  Esau  a  brother  of  Jacob?  says  Jehovah.  Yet  I  loved  Jacob 
8.  and  hated  Esau,  and  laid  his  mountains  waste,  and  made  his  inher- 

»  Mai.  iii.  1-6.  »  Mai.  i.  2,  8. 


THE  PROPHET  MALACHI.  531 

itance  a  dwelling  of  jackals  of  the  desert. '  4.  Though  Edom  say,  *  '  We 
are  broken  in  pieces,  but  we  will  build  up  our  ruins  again,'  thus  says 
Jehovah :  They  may  build,  but  I  will  throw  down,  and  these  desolate 
regions  will  be  called  'The  Lands  of  Wickedness,'  and  men  will  say  of 
their  inhabitants — '  The  ]3eople  against  whom  Jehovah  is  indignant  for 
ever.'  ^  5.  Your  eyes  will  see  this,  and  you  will  say,  *  Jehovah  is  great 
(in  His  doings)  beyond  the  limits  of  Israel.'  " 

Having  thus  established  the  claim  of  Jehovah  to  the  love 
and  obedience  of  His  people,  the  prophet  advances  to  his 
charge  against  them,  beginning  with  the  sins  of  the  priest- 
liood. 

"  6.  A  son  honours  his  father  and  a  servant  his  master.  But  if  I  be  a 
Father,  where  is  My  honour?  If  I  be  a  Master,  where  is  the  reverence 
due  to  Me?  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  to  you,  0  priests,  who  dishonour 
My  name,  and  yet  say,  'How  have  we  dishonoured  Thy  name?' 
7.  (Let  me  tell  you.)  You  offer  unclean  bread  on  My  altar,*  and  yet 
say,  'In  what  have  we  defiled  Thy  name?'  (You  do  it  thus),  by  your 
saying  (in  your  deeds,  that)  the  table  of  Jehovah — His  altar — is  not 
worth  respect.  8.  When  you  offer  blind  animals  for  sacrifices,  is  that 
no  offence?  When  you  offer  lame  or  sick  creatures,  is  that  no  griev- 
ance? ^  If  you  offered  it  to  your  governor  (though  he  be  only  a  man), 
would  he  be  pleased  with  you,  or  regard  your  person  (with  favour)  ?  says 
Jehovah  of  Hosts.  9.  But  now,  when  you  implore  God  to  be  gracious 
unto  us — His  people — you,  at  whose  hand  He  has  received  such  an  in- 
sult— will  He  regard  your  persons  with  favour  ?  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts. 

"10.  (How  can  He?)  For  I  would,  says  He,  there  were  one  among 
you  who  would  close  the  Temple  doors  altogether,  that  ye  may  not 
kindle  fire  on  My  altar,  since  your  conduct  makes  it  useless  to  do  so. 
I  have  no  pleasure  in  you,  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  and  I  will  not  accept 
any  offering  at  your  hand !  " 

God  does  not  need  their  worship ;  He  wiH  hereafter  be 

»  The  desolation  of  Edom  referred  to  eeema  to  have  happened  shortly  before  the 
prophet  speaks.    Idumsea,  as  well  as  Judah,  had  been  subdued  by  Babylon. 

«  Mai.  i.  4-10. 

3  Edom  never  regained  its  former  glory.  From  the  times  of  the  Maccabees,  espe- 
cially, it  sank,  and  its  land  became  forsaken. 

*  By  "  bread,"  the  prophet  means  offerings  generally.  See  next  verse.  All  offer- 
ings are  called  "  bread  of  God."    Lev.  xxi.  6,  8,  17,  etc. 

•  It  was  contrary  to  Lev.  xxii.  20-22.    "  Governor,"  Hebrew  Bible,  '•  Pacha." 


632  THE  PKOPHET  MALACHI. 

honoured  over   the  whole  workl,   by  the   heathen,   whom 
they  despise. 

*'ll.  For,  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  to  its  going  down,'  My  name 
will  be  great  among  the  heathen,  and  in  every  place  incense  will  be 
offered  to  My  name,  and  a  pure  offering  (not  an  impure,  like  yours) ; 
for  My  name  shall  be  great  among  the  heathen,  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts. 
12.  But  ye  have  profaned  it  by  your  saying,  *  The  table  of  Jehovah  is 
defiled,  and  what  is  given  to  lay  on  it — the  bread  of  God — is  contemp- 
tible.' 13.  Ye  have  said  also,  'Ah,  what  a  trouble  it  is!'  And  ye 
have  sniffed  at  it,  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  and  bring  what  has  been 
taken  by  force,  and  the  lame,  and  the  sick,  (as  offerings).  Such  is  the 
kind  of  sacrifice  ye  have  brought!  Shall  I  accept  this  at  your  hand? 
says  Jehovah  of  Hosts. 

"  14.  But  cursed  be  he  who  tries  to  deceive  Me  (in  this  way);  who, 
having  in  his  flock  a  male,  and  having  vowed  to  offer  a  sacrifice,  offers 
to  Jehovah  a  blemished  beast.  For  I  am  a  great  King,  says  Jehovah 
of  Hosts,  and  My  name  is  feared  among  the  nations." 

Having  thus  fearlessly  accused  the  priests,  Malachi 
passes  on  to  announce  the  punishment  that  will  befall 
them,  in  case  they  do  not  take  warning,  and  discharge 
their  office  aright. 

"  II.  1.  And  now,  this  commandment  is  for  you,  0  priests.  2.  If 
ye  will  not  hear  and  lay  it  to  heart,  to  give  glory  to  My  name,  says 
Jehovah  of  Hosts,  I  will  send  on  you  the  curse,  and  curse  your  bless- 
ings, and,  indeed,  I  have  already  cursed  them,  because  ye  do  not  lay  it 
to  heart. '^ 

*'  3.  Behold,  I  will  drive  the  sower  away  from  the  field,'  and  I  will 
spread  filth  *  on  your  faces — the  filth  of  your  feasts — (dishonouring  you 
to  the  uttermost)  and  it  will  stick  to  you.^  4.  And  ye  will  know  that 
I  have  sent  this  command  to  you  (to  honour  My  service,  as  the  condi- 
tion of  the  continuance  of)  My  covenant  with  Levi,  says  Jehovah  of 
Hosts. 

»  Mal.i.  11-14;  ii.  1-4. 

2  "Your  blessings,"  the  tithes,  etc.,  which  were  the  revenues  of  tlie  priests,  but 
were  already  withheld  by  the  people. 

3  Conjectural  reading  of  Hitzig  and  Steiner.  They  depended  on  the  farmer  for 
their  tithes.  *  Literally,  "  dung."  *  v»iigate  and  Luther. 


THE    PROPHET   MALACHI.  533 

*'  5.  My  covenant  wiili  liim  was  one  of  life  and  peace,'  and  T  gave  it 
him  to  secure  His  fearing  Me,  and  lie  did  fear  Me,  and  tremble  before 
My  name.  6.  The  law  of  truth  was  in  his  mouth,  and  no  unjust  (no 
partial)  decision  was  found  in  his  lips;  he  walked  with  Me  in  peace 
and  equity,  and  turned  many  back  from  transgression.  7.  For  the 
lips  of  the  priest  should  keep  knowledge,  and  they  should  seek  the  law 
at  his  mouth,  for  he  is  the  messenger  of  Jehovah  of  Hosts. 

"8.  But  ye  have  departed  out  of  the  way;  ye  have  caused  many  to 
stumble  in  regard  to  the  law ;  ye  have  corrupted  the  covenant  which  I 
made  with  Levi,  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts.  9.  Therefore  I  will  also  make 
you  contemptible  and  despised  before  all  the  people,  according  as  ye 
have  not  kept  My  ways,  and  have  had  respect  of  persons  in  (your  car- 
rying out)  the  law." 

From  his  accusation  of  the  priests,  the  prophet  passes  to 
the  sin  of  those  who  had  married  heathen  wives,  divorcing 
Jewesses  to  do  so,  in  sjiite  of  the  recent  legislation  on  the 
subject,  and  in  the  face  of  ancient  prohibition. 

"  10.  Have  we  not  all  one  Father?  Has  not  one  God  created  us? 
Why  then  are  we  faithless  one  to  the  other,  profaning  the  covenant 
of  our  fathers?  11.  Judah  has  acted  faithlessly,  and  abomination  is 
committed  in  Israel  and  Jerusalem ;  for  Judah  has  dishonoured  his 
race — the  holy  people  of  Jehovah,  whom  He  loved — and  has  married 
the  daughter  of  a  foreign  god.  12.  May  Jehovah  cut  off  the  (race  of 
the)  man  that  doeth  this,  both  the  watchman  and  him  that  answers,  ^ 
from  the  tents  of  Jacob,  and  cut  off  him  also  who  might  present  an 
offering  to  Jehovah  of  Hosts  (on  his  behalf,  for  the  atonement  of  his 
sins)  I 

"13.  Still  further,  ye  have  committed  a  second  offence;  ye  cover 
the  altar  of  Jehovah  with  tears,  ^  with  weeping,  and  sighs,  so  that  Je- 
hovah no  longer  turns  towards  your  offering  or  receives  that  which  is 
acceptable,  at  your  hand.  14.  And  ye  say,  why?  Because  Jehovah 
has  been  witness  between  ^:hee  and  the  wife  of  thy  youth,  towards 
whom  thou  hast  acted  faithlessly,  though  she  was  thy  companion, 
(sharing  joy  and  sorrow  with  thee),  and  the  wife  of  thy  marriage  bond.^ 
15.  No  one  who  has  any  understanding  has  done  this.^  But  ye  say, 
'  What  was  it  that  "  the  one"  (Abraham)  did — (he  who  is  the  greatest 

*  Mai.  ii.  5-15.  ^  A  proverbial  expression  for  every  one. 

3  Those  of  divorced  Jewit^h  wives.       ■•  ThLs  refers  to  the  heartless  divorces  in  use. 

'  This  and  what  follows  seems  the  best  reading. 


534  THE  PROPHET  MALAOHI. 

name  in  our  history)  ?  (Why  did  he  send  away  Hagar,  his  wife,  the 
mother  of  Ishmael  ? '  The  answer  is),  lie  was  seeking  a  Godly  seed — 
(the  child  of  promise) ;  therefore,  take  heed  to  your  spirit,  and  let  no 
one  act  faithlessly  (against  the  wife  of  his  youth)." 

Having  thus  rebuked  the  leading  sins  of  his  day,  the 
prophet  turns  to  the  future.  Restlessness  and  murmuring 
abounded.  Men  affected  to  believe  that  the  wicked  were 
favoured  by  God,  and  prospered,  while  the  good  were 
allowed  to  suffer,  and  they  flouted  the  idea  of  the  coming 
of  a  day  of  judgment — the  great  day  of  the  Lord — so  con- 
stantly announced  by  the  prophets,  age  after  age.  They 
are  addressed  thus  : 

"17.  Ye  weary  Jehovah'  with  your  words.  Yet  you  say,  'How 
have  we  wearied  Him?'  (You  have  done  it  thus);  by  your  saying, 
'  Every  one  that  does  evil  is  good  in  the  sight  of  Jehovah,  and  He 
delights  in  him,'  or  '  Where  is  the  God  of  judgment? '  " 

In  stern  answer  to  these  murmurers,  Jehovah  announces 
His  coming  to  judgment. 

"  in.  1.  Behold,  I  send  My  Messenger,'^  to  prepare  the  way  before 
Me,  and  the  Lord,  whom  ye  seek,  shall  suddenly  come  to  His  temple, 
even  the  Messenger  of  the  Covenant,  whom  ye  desire,  says  Jehovah  of 
Hosts." 

The  ''day  of  the  Lord'"  in  Malachi,  however,  unlike 
that  of  Joel  and  the  earlier  prophets,  is  not  the  advent  of 
Jehovah  as  the  warrior  of  Israel,  to  destroy  the  heathen, 
but  that  of  One  who  should  purify  the  kingdom  of  God 
from  iniquity,  and  introduce  the  triumph  of  righteousness. 

»  Mai.  ii.  17 ;  iii.  1. 

2  "My  messenger"  is  in  Hebrew  "Malachi."  This  has  led  some  to  question 
whether  the  phrase  be  a  title  applied  to  the  prophet,  or  a  proper  name.  Keil  under- 
stands "My  messenger,"  in  the  first  line  of  the  verse,  of  John  the  Baptist. 
"Angels"  or  "Messengers  "  had  often  appeared  on  missions  from  God,  but  in 
Malachi  the  figure  pervades  the  whole  book. 


THE  PROPHET  MALACHI.  535 

"2.  But  who  may  abide  the  day  of  His  coming?  and  who  shall  stand 
when  He  appeareth?  For  He  is  like  a  refiner's  fire  '  and  like  fuller's  ^ 
lye.  3.  And  He  will  sit  as  a  refiner  and  purifier  of  silver,  and  He  will 
purify  and  cleanse  the  sons  of  Levi,  as  gold  and  silver  (ai-e  purged  from 
alloy  by  the  smelter),  that  they  may  (henceforth)  offer  to  Jehovah  His 
offering,  in  righteousness.  4.  Then  will  the  offering  of  Judah  and 
Jerusalem  be  pleasant  to  Jehovah,  as  in  former  days  and  long  past 
years." 

Thus  the  priests  and  Levites  will  first  be  judged,  but 
then  comes  the  visitation  of  all  evil  doers. 

*'  5.  And  I  will  come  near  you  to  judgment,  and  will  be  a  swift  wit- 
ness against  the  sorcerers  (who  deal  in  magic  spells  and  superstitions), 
and  against  adulterers,  and  against  false  swearers,  and  against  those 
who  oppress  the  hireling  in  his  wages,  the  widow  and  the  orphan,  and 
turn  aside  the  alien  from  his  right,  and  fear  not  Me,  says  Jehovah  of 
Hosts.  6.  For  I,  Jehovah,  change  not,  therefore  ye  sons  of  Jacob  are 
not  consumed.' 

"  7.  Since  the  days  of  your  fathers  ye  have  gone  away  from  My 
ordinances,  and  have  not  kept  them.  Return  unto  Me,  and  I  will  re- 
turn unto  you,  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts.  But  ye  say,  '  In  what  respect 
shall  we  return  ? ' 

"8.  Should  a  man  defraud  God?  Yet,  ye  have  defrauded  me.  But 
ye  say,  *  In  what  respect  have  we  defrauded  Thee?'  In  tithes  and 
heave  offerings  (for  the  support  of  My  House).  9.  Ye  are  cursed  with 
the  curse,*  yet  ye  are  (continually)  defrauding  Me — the  whole  of  you. 
10.  Bring  all  the  tithes  into  the  (Temple)  storehouse,  that  there  may  be 
food  in  My  House,  and  put  me  to  the  proof  by  this,  says  Jehovah  of 
Hosts,  if  I  will  not  open  to  you  the  windows  of  heaven,  and  pour  you 
out  a  blessing  (in  copious  rains),  even  to  superabundance.  11.  And  I 
will  rebuke  the  devourer — (the  locust) — for  your  sakes,  so  that  he  will 
no  longer  destroy  the  fruits  of  your  ground,  and  the  vine  will  no  longer 
fail  in  the  field,  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts.  12.  And  all  nations  will  call 
you  happy,  for  ye  shall  be  a  delightsome  land,  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts. 

"13.  Your  words  have  been  stout  against  Me,  says  Jehovah.     Yet 

>  The  furnace  of  a  metal  smelter.    Mai.  iii.  2-13.  «  Or,  washerman's. 

3  Steiner  and  Keil  understand  this  verse  thus  :  "  For  I,  Jehovah,  change  not,  and 
ye  sons  of  Jacob  shall  not  perish,  as  a  race."  I  shall  punish  only  the  wicked 
among  you . 

*  Unfruitfulness,  bad  harvests,  drought,  and  locusts,  etc. 


536  THE  PROPHET  MALACHI. 

ye  say,  'What  have  we  spoken  together  against  Thee  ? '  14.  Ye  have 
said,'  *It  is  of  no  use  serving  God,  and  what  profit  is  it  that  we  have 
kept  His  ordinances,  and  have  gone  about  in  (black)  mourning  (weeds) 
before  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  (in  fasts)  ?  This  being  so,  we  praise  the  proud, 
ungodly,  (prosperous,  man),  as  happy,  for  not  only  are  the  workers  of 
wickedness  built  up,  but  when  they  have  thus  put  God  to  proof,  they 
are  nevertheless  delivered  (from  evil).'  " 

These  foolish  and  wicked  speeches,  the  prophet  contrasts 
with  the  bearing  of  the  godly  among  the  people,  announc- 
ing, besides,  the  blessing  vouchsafed  to  these  faithful  ones, 
and  warning  the  impenitent  of  the  certainty  of  their  future 
doom. 

■ "  16.  Then  they  that  feared  Jehovah  discoursed  often  one  with 
another,  and  Jehovah  hearkened,  and  heard,  and  a  book  of  remem- 
brance was  written  before  Him,  for  those  who  feared  Jehovah  and 
honoured  His  name.  17.  And  they  shall  be  My  treasure,  says  Jehovah, 
in  The  Day  which  I  am  preparing;  and  I  will  spare  them  (in  that  day) 
as  a  man  spares  his  son  that  serves  him.  18.  Then  shall  ye,  once 
more,  see  the  difference  between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked  ;  be- 
tween him  that  serves  God  and  him  that  serves  Him  not. 

"IV.  1.  For,  behold.  The  Day  comes,  biu-ning  like  an  oven,  and  all 
the  proud,  and  every  worker  of  iniquity,  shall  be  as  the  stubble  (that 
feeds  it) ;  The  Day  that  is  coming  will  burn  them  up,  says  Jehovah  of 
Hosts,  so  (utterly)  that  it  will  leave  neither  root  nor  twig  of  them. 

"  2.  But  to  you  who  fear  My  name,  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  will 
arise,  with  healing  in  His  beams, ^  and  ye  shall  go  forth  (from  the 
places  in  which  you  have  hidden  in  that  awful  day),  and  leap  like  fed 
calves  (for  joy),  o.  And  ye  will  tread  the  wicked  under  foot,  for  they 
will  be  ashes  under  the  soles  of  your  feet  (burnt  up  as  they  will  be),  in 
The  Day  which  I  am  preparing,  says  Jehovah  of  Hosts," 

A  final  exhortation  to  the  godly  concludes  the  prophecy. 

"4.  Be  mindful  of  the  Law  of  Moses,  My  servant,  which  I  com- 
manded in  Horeb  to  all  Israel,  even  (My)  statutes  and  judgments  I  5. 
Behold,  I  will  send  you  Elijah  the  prophet  ^  before  the  coming  of  the 

»  Mai.  iii.  14-18  ;  iv.1-5.  "  Hebrew,  "wings." 

»  Luke  i.  16,  17.    Matt.  xi.  10.    Luke  vii.  27.    Matt.  xvij.  11 .    Mark  ix.  11. 


THE  PROPHET  MALACHI.  53? 

great  and  dreadful  Day  of  Jehovali  ;  0.  and  he  will  turn  the  heart  of 
the  fathers  to  the  children,  and  the  heart  of  the  children  to  their 
fathers,  lest  I  come  and  smite  the  land  with  utter  destruction."  ' 

The  stern  preaching  of  Malachi  was  vindicated  by  the 
condition  of  things  which  Nehemiah  found  on  his  return 
from  Persia.  Friendly  relations  with  the  open  enemies 
of  strict  Judaism  had  been  shewn  even  by  the  liigh 
priest  Eliashib,  wlio  was  either  related  to  Tobiah  the 
Ammonite,  by  marriage,  or  connected  with  the  party 
friendly  to  him  in  high  Jewish  society.  In  open  dis- 
respect to  both  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  Eliashib  had  gone 
80  far,  during  the  governor's  absence,  as  to  make  over  to 
Tobiah  one  of  the  houses  in  the  outer  Temple  buildings, 
appropriating  to  his  use,  among  others,  the  great  chamber 
in  which  the  flour  and  frankincense  for  the  altar,  the 
vessels  for  measuring  the  quantities  required,  and  the 
tithes  of  corn,  wine,  and  oil,  for  the  Levites,  the  guards 
of  the  doors,  and  the  singers,  were  stored.^  Such  an 
abuse  at  once  roused  the  indignation  of  Nehemiah. 
That  the  high  priest,  of  all  men,  should  have  lodged 
Tobiah  in  Jerusalem,  especially  in  the  courts  of  the  House 
of  God,  was  an  outrage  not  to  be  endured  for  a  moment. 
The  furniture  of  the  intruder  was  at  once  unceremo- 
niously thrown  out  into  the  road  ;  the  chambers  he  had 
occupied  cleansed  as  if  from  surpassing  defilement,  and 
the  vessels  and  stores,  removed  for  his  convenience, 
carried  back  to  their  former  places. 

This  irregularity,  however,  was  only  one  symptom  of 
the  widely  spread  moral  declension,  denounced  so  stren- 
uously by   Malachi.      The   non-payment  of  the  tithes,  in 

'  Literally,  "  a  ban  "  which  devoted  anything  to  utter  destruction.    Mai.  iv.  6. 
*  Neb.  xiii.  5. 


538  THE  PROPHET  MALACHI. 

particular,  shocked  Nehemiah.  Summoning  the  chief 
men  of  the  community,  therefore,  to  his  presence,  he 
bitterly  reproached  them  with  their  failure  to  collect  the 
dues  for  the  Temple  and  Priests.  '^  Why,"  asked  he, 
^'  is  the  House  of  God  forsaken  ?  "  It  was  a  serious  matter. 
The  Temple  services  had  been  suspended  for  want  of 
Levites  to  discharge  the  sacred  offices,  and  its  courts  were 
left  empty  of  worshippers.*  Such  carelessness  could  not 
be  suffered.  The  elders  of  the  various  localities  must  at 
once  attend  to  their  duty.  Such  rigour  brought  the  hap- 
piest results.  The  tithes  were  forthwith  collected,  for  a 
time,  from  the  whole  land. 

The  strict  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  to  which  the  peo- 
j)le  had  pledged  themselves  in  their  recent  covenant,  had 
been  as  shamefully  violated  as  the  engagement  respecting 
tithes.  As  already  noticed,  the  wine-presses  were  every- 
where as  busy  on  the  seventh  day  as  on  the  rest  of  the 
week  :  harvest  work  was  continued  during  its  sacred  hours, 
and  the  sheaves,  laden  on  asses,  carried,  all  day  long,  to  the 
threshing  floors,  as  at  other  times.  Even  in  Jerusalem, 
the  Sabbath  was  noisy  with  market  people  bringing  wine, 
grapes,  figs,  and  otlier  produce,  to  the  gates  through  the 
Friday  night,  and  selling  them  on  the  Saturday.' 

Phoenician  fishermen  and  dealers  in  dried  fish  and  in 
every  kind  of  Tyrian  ware,  attended  the  fair  weekly,  in 
numbers.  The  day  on  which  all  work  should  have  ceased, 
was  the  least  quiet  of  any.  Such  desecration  could  not  be 
suffered.  Calling  before  him  the  municipal  authorities, 
Nehemiah  rebuked  them  sharply,  reminding  them  that 
similar  conduct  on  the  part  of  their  fathers  had,  in  part, 

»  Neh.  xiii.  11. 

'  Neh.  xiii.  18.    The  Sabbath  began  on  our  Friday  at  sunset,  and  lasted  till  our 
Saturday  at  sunset. 


THE  PROPHET  MALACHI.  539 

been  the  cause  of  their  national  calamities.'  Hencefor- 
ward, by  liis  command,  the  gates  of  the  city  were  to  be 
shut  on  Friday  night,  as  soon  as  their  archways  grew  dark, 
and  they  were  not  to  be  opened  till  sunset  on  Saturday, 
when  the  Jewish  Sabbath  was  over.  Men  were  also  placed 
at  each  gate,  to  see  that  no  burdens  were  smuggled  in  dur- 
ing the  day  of  rest.  Balked  in  their  hopes  of  finding  a 
mart  inside  the  city,  the  market  people  and  traders  tried  to 
open  one  outside  the  walls ;  free  egress  being  allowed  the 
inhabitants  during  the  Sabbath,  though  traffic  was  prohib- 
ited. But  this  lasted  only  a  short  time.  A  threat  to  arrest 
the  offenders  was  sufficient  to  secure  temporarily  the 
honour  of  the  holy  day.  Against  any  recurrence  of  such 
disorder,  Levites,  ceremonially  purified  for  the  purpose, 
were  a2">pointed  to  attend  at  each  gate  during  the  Sabbath, 
and  keep  a  strict  watch  over  those  who  went  out  or  in.'' 

The  question  of  mixed  marriages,  in  spite  of  all  efforts 
on  the  part  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  and  of  all  promises  on 
that  of  the  people,  still  gave  great  trouble.  Not  a  few,  as 
we  have  seen  in  the  denunciation  by  Malachi,  broke  the 
law  in  this  matter,  to  the  extent  of  divorcing  Jewesses  to 
marry  heathen  women,  or  at  least  proselytes.  Nehemiah 
noticed  this  very  soon.  Such  indifference  in  a  matter  which 
he,  like  Ezra,  regarded  as  vital,  roused  his  indignation. 
Pacha  though  he  was,  he  could  not  restrain  himself  when 
some  who  had  thus  offended  were  brought  before  him. 
From  fierce  words  he  passed  to  violence,  rushing  at  the 
offenders,  striking  them,  and  tearing  their  hair  and  beards 
in  his  burning  anger.  Nor  would  he  rest  till  they  had 
sworn  by  Jehovah,  to  abandon  their  sin.'  One  transgres- 
sor, indeed,  Manasseh,  the   grandson   of  the   high   priest 

»  Jer.  xvii.  21.  a  Neh.  xiii.  22.  '  Neh.  xiii.  25. 


540  THE   PROPHET   MALACHI. 

Eliashib,  who  had  ventured  to  marry  the  daughter  of  San- 
ballat,  the  bitterest  enemy  of  Jerusalem  in  its  past  trials, 
did  not  escape  so  easily.  Refusing  to  put  away  his  wife, 
Nehemiah's  indignation  knew  no  bounds.  A  priest  was 
bound  to  marry  only  a  virgin  of  his  own  race/  and  thus 
the  priesthood  was  defiled  by  this  alliance.  Besides,  the 
guilty  man  was  a  younger  son  of  the  high-priestly  family, 
so  that  the  whole  order  was  compromised.  The  offence 
was,  in  fact,  a  breach  at  once  of  the  covenant  granted  to 
Phinehas,  and  of  that  made  directly  with  the  tribe  of 
Levi.'*  Nehemiah,  therefore,  ignominiously  expelled  him 
from  the  priesthood,  chasing  him  from  his  presence  with 
a  fierce  imprecation  on  one  who,  with  his  family,  "  had 
defiled  at  once  the  covenant  of  the  priesthood  and  of  the 
Levites."' 

The  closing  verses  of  Nehemiah's  notices  of  affairs  in 
Judah,  under  his  rule,  give  a  brief  summary  of  the  results 
of  his  government,  apart  from  the  great  work  of  building 
the  walls  of  Jerusalem.  He  had  purified  the  community 
from  heathen  customs,  and  had  restored  an  orderly  admin- 
istration of  public  worship.  He  had  further  arranged  for 
the  regular  provision  of  wood  for  the  altar,  and  for  the 
tithes  and  first  fruits  being  paid  in  for  the  service  of  the 
Temple  and  its  ministers.  The  legal  spirit  of  later  Juda- 
ism shines  out  in  such  a  record,  set  down  with  minute 
exactness,  as  a  ground  on  which  it  could  be  pleaded  that 
God  should  remember  one  for  good.  Malachi,  in  the  same 
way,  had  denounced  marriage  with  foreigners,  but  his 
preaching  had  been  mainly  directed  against  the  moral  evils 
of  the  times.     The  exact  observance  of  Levitical  rules  was, 

1  Lev.  xxl.  7-14.  2  Num.  xxv.  13.    Exod.  xxviii.  1.    Lev.  xxi.  G-8. 

3  Neh.  xiii.  29.    The  civil  power  in  this  case,  as  iu  so  many  others  m  Jewish  his- 
tory, is  supreme  over  the  ecclesiastical. 


THE  PROPHET  MALACHI.  541 

however,  the  prominent  characteristic  of  the  reforms  of 
both  Nehemiah  and  Ezra.  The  contrast  marks  the  formal- 
ism of  the  age  after  the  Exile ;  so  different  from  the  spirit 
of  earlier  days. 

Of  Nehemiah's  later  history  we  know  nothing,  but  he 
and  Ezra  fill  a  large  part  in  Jewish  legends  and  traditions. 
To  the  generations  immediately  succeeding,  Nehemiah 
seemed  the  greater  man  of  the  two,  for  it  is  he,  and  not 
Ezra,  whom  we  meet  in  the  list  of  heroes  of  the  nation 
given  by  the  son  of  Sirach.'  In  the  age  of  the  Maccabees 
it  was  to  Nehemiah,  not  to  Zerubbabel,  that  the  glory  was 
ascribed  of  rebuilding  the  Temple,  setting  up  again  the 
altar,  offering  the  first  sacrifice  on  it,  and  discovering  the 
sacred  fire,  which  the  priests,  it  was  believed,  had  hidden 
in  a  dry  cistern.''  To  him,  also,  was  attributed  the  collec- 
tion of  the  sacred  books,  and  the  formation  of  the  Canon.  ^ 
But  in  later  times  Ezra  took  the  chief  place  in  the  national 
memory.  Some,  as  I  have  said,  hold  him  to  have  been  the 
prophet  known  to  us  as  Malachi.  He  had  reproduced  the 
whole  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  it  was  said,  from 
memory,  after  the  Chaldseans  had  destroyed  them.  Apoc- 
ryphal books  were  written  in  his  name,  and  he  was  glorified 
as  the  founder  of  the  Great  Synagogue  of  tradition,  to 
which  the  elaboration  of  the  Law  was  mainly  ascribed. 

The  whole  subsequent  history  of  Judaism  is  the  monu- 
ment of  the  zeal  and  devotion  of  the  two  Reformers.  To 
their  stern  exclusiveness  was  directly  due  the  hatred  and 
rivalry  between  Jew  and  Samaritan,  the  creation  of  the 
Rabbinical  Law,  which  has  buried  the  teachings  of  Moses 
under  its  endless  comments,  and  the  rise  of  that  fierce 
pride  and  Pharisaic  religionism,  which  culminated  in  the 
»  Ecclns.  xlix.  11-13.  a  2  Mace.  i.  18,  19.  »  2  Mace.  ii.  18. 


543  THE  PROPHET  MALACHI. 

spiritual  death  of  the  nation,  and  in  the  establishment  of 
a  ritualism  which  controls  the  Jew  in  every  act,  from  the 
cradle  to  the  grave.  Their  stern  Puritanism,  too  earnestly 
fixed  on  the  letter,  ended  by  making  it  supreme.  They 
preserved  the  nation,  and  kept  it  true  to  Jehovah,  but 
introduced  a  principle  which,  in  the  end,  changed  His 
worship,  in  the  nation  at  large,  from  that  of  the  heart  and 
life,  to  a  slavery  to  mere  outward  forms.  As  always  hap- 
pens, in  achieving  the  triumph  of  ceremonialism,  they  laid 
the  axe  at  the  root  of  spiritual  religion. 


FIl^IS. 


INDEX 


Abednego,  260. 

Abiathar,  345  n. 

Aehor,  361. 

Ahasuenis,  427,  454. 

Aholah,  43. 

Aholibah,  43. 

Aimek,  147  ti.,  307  »^. 

xYkrabbim,  415. 

Altar,  great,  built,  421. 

Altars,  360. 

Araasis,  385. 

Aminoii,  162;  prophecies  against, 

37-8,  155,  156. 
Amran,  267. 
Anathoth,  86. 

Angels,  doctrine  of,  in  Daniel,  382. 
Apis,  the  god,  80. 
Apocalyptic  literature,   Jewish, 

295,  440. 
Ark,  tradition  respecting,  208-9. 
Artaxerxes,  427  7i.,  487. 
Aryans,  the,  supersede  the  Semitic 

races  as  rulers  of  the  world,  385. 
Ascalon,  148,  149. 
Asherah  tents,  11. 

Babylon,  description  of,  261;  its 
walls,  262;  palaces,  266;  hang- 
ing gardens,  266;  mainly  built 
by  Nebuchadnezzar,  266-268  ; 
canals  of,  270;  temples  of,  270; 
despotic  power  of  kings  of,  275 ; 
treasures  of,  322 ;  seat  of  the  wis- 
dom of  the  age,  327  n, ;  impurity 
of,  378,  386;  fall  of,  391,  395-6; 
swift  decay  of,  405 ;  deputations 
to  Judah  from,  441. 

Babylonia,  punishments  in,  274  ; 
commerce  of,  316  n. 


Bankers  and  bill-brokers,  285-287. 

Baptism  in  early  Church,  345. 

Barachiel,  370,  371. 

Beard,  plucking  the,  of  a  prisoner, 
334. 

Belshazzar,  373. 

Belteshazzar,  260. 

Benhadad,  157. 

Bethel,  deputation  to  Jerusalem 
from,  442. 

Bethshean,  417. 

Black  arts,  the,  3. 

"Bosom,"  pouring  into  the,  97. 

Burial,  spices  burnt  at,  76  n. ;  an- 
cient forms  of,  76. 

Burning  of  the  dead,  283. 

Cambyses,  314  n.,  452. 

Canonical  books,  date  of  some  of 

the,  383. 
Caphtor,  147. 
Carmel,  81. 

Chaldaean  army,  uniform  of,  45. 
Chemosh,  150. 

Children  carried  on  the  side,  351. 
Chimham,  khan  of,  167. 
Chronology,  288. 
Clay   school-books  of  Babylon, 

258-9. 
Covenant,    new,    promised,    72, 

511. 
Criminals,  mutilation  of,  46. 
Crocodile,  the,  336  n. 
Croesus,  386. 
Cubit,  the,  241. 
Cupbearer,  Persian,  499,  503. 
Cush,  232  n. 

Cutting  the  person,  in  grief,  165  n. 
Cyaxares  II.,  400  n. 


544 


IN^DEX. 


Cvnis,  158,  304,  305,  309  w.,  313  v., 
"321,  323,  333  n.,  384,  405,  407, 
452. 

Damascus,  prophecies  against,  157. 
Daniel,  7,  256,  294;  book  of,  292, 

293. 
Darius  the  Mede,  400. 
Darius   Hystaspis,  403,  404,    442, 

453. 
Dead,  prayer  for  the,  358  n. 
Deportations  of  Jews,  113-114. 
Despotism,  Persian,  402  ?i. 
Divination  by  arrows,  etc.,  30. 
Diviners,    orders  of,   at  Babylon, 

272. 
Doseh,  the,  in  Egypt,  337  **. 
Dovecots,  352  7i. 
Dreams,  274. 
Drunkenness,  48. 
Dry  Bones,  Valley  of,  224-5. 
Dungeons,  312. 
Dura,  Plain  of,  279,  280. 

Ebed  Melech,  90. 

Edora,  137,  140,  144,  145,  356,  531 ; 

prophecies  against,  140-144,  145, 

146,  147,  219,  220,  531. 
Edomites,  malignity  of,  137,  139; 

in  Palestine,  416. 
Egibi  tablets,  285-0. 
Egypt,  flight  of  Jews  to,  168-70; 

prophecies  against,   80,  82,   83, 

189-193,  194,  194-7. 
Elam,  prophecies  against,  158-9. 
Eliashib,  490. 
Erech,  11,  12  7i. 
Esther,  460-468. 
Evil  Merodach,  111,  288,  373. 
Exile,  the,  367-372. 
Eyelids,  painting  the,  48,  344  7i. 
Ekekiel,  50,  52,  210,  212,  240. 
Ezekiel's  vision  of  Temple,  only  a 

vision,  242,  243. 
Ezra,  486;  leads  a  body  of  Jews  to 

Jerusaleui,    488;    character    of, 

493;  indignation   of,    at    mixed 

marriages,  494. 

Fasts,  the  four  Jewish,  348,  376, 
443. 


Fiold-mousc,  the,  365. 
Fiery  furnace,  the,  282. 
Fighting,  customs   in   ancient, 

338  n. 
Figs,  63. 
' '  Folly, "  Hebrew  idea  of,  2. 

Galilee,  417. 

"  Gate  of  the  king,"  the,  277. 

Gedaliah,  114,  160,  163,  164. 

Geshem,  510. 

Gog,  231,  232. 

Gold,  abundance   of,  in  Babylon, 

278. 
Golden  image,  Nebuchadnezzar's. 

276. 
Grapes,  taste  of  unrii)e,  20  ?i. 
Great  Pyramid,  size  of,  269. 
Greece,  war  of  I^ersia  against,  453; 

460. 
Grinding  at  the  mill,  326. 
Guerilla  band,  Jewish,  162,  164. 

Haggai,  428-433. 

llaman,  400,  466. 

Hamath,  157. 

Ilasidim,  the,  116. 

High  places,  30. 

"  Holy  City"  of  Ezekiel,  252-3. 

Holy    Land,  bounds   of  the,   in 

Ezekiel,  252. 
"House  of  Stoning,"  119,  120. 
Household  gods,  424. 
Human  sacrifices,  30. 
Hyrcanus  subdues  Edomites,  416. 

Idolatry    described,    381;    Jewish 

prophecies  against,  5. 
Idols,    food   offered  to,  abhorred, 

261,  320 ;_  worship  of,  424. 
Imagery,    influences    of    external 

world  on  Jewish,  241. 
Infant,  Eastern  treatment  of,  10  n. 
''  Isaiah,"  second  part  of,  296-299. 
Ishmael,  162,  164,  166. 
Ithamar,  246. 

Jackal,  the,  2  n, 
Jedar,  a,  2  n. 

Jeremiah,  56,  65,  75,  85,  86,  88,  91, 
95,  97,  160,  167-9,  208. 


IKDEX. 


545 


Jerusalem,  prehistortc,  9-15;  siege 
of,  foretold,  86,  49;  prophecies 
against,  40,  57,  G2;  moral  con- 
dition of,  41 ;  siege  of,  49,  54, 
56,  74;  slaves  in,  emancipated, 
77;  lawlessness  in,  78;  prophe- 
cies against  princes  and  people 
of,  78,  86,  98,  99;  siege  of,  C'hal- 
da^ans  for  a  time  withdraw  from. 
77;  horrors  of  siege  of,  92,  104; 
close  of  siege  of,  106,  111;  size 
of,  108,  525,  526 ;  after  the  siege, 
115;  "Wailing  Place"'  in,  121, 
122;  fortification  of,  opposed, 
468;  progress  of ,  470 ;  })rojeeted 
massacre  by  Persians,  462-3; 
despondency  of  citizens  of,  470; 
alliance  against,  511;  walls  of, 
finished,  514;  dedication  of  walls 
of,  514. 

Jewelry,  11. 

Jewish  reckoning  of  years,  259. 

Jews,  character  of  exiled,  22;  de- 
portations of,  170;  in  Egypt, 
prophecies  against,  184;  state  of, 
during  the  Captivity,  369,  379; 
number  of,  in  Babylon,  374; 
idolatry  of,  in  Babylon,  374;  re- 
ligious state  of,  375. 

Joshua,  the  high  priest,  413. 

Josiah's  reformation,  tem])oral 
good  not  realized  after,  21. 

Judah  after  Return,  prophecies 
against,  7-19,  22,  24,  26,  28-32, 
36-38,  42,  44,  211;  after  murder 
of  Gedaliah,  211 ;  bounds  of,  418 ; 
constitution  of,  419;  disap- 
pointed hopes  of,  429 ;  and 
Babylon,  intercourse  between, 
483 ;  condition  of,  in  Ezra's  time, 
485. 


Kedar,  157,  312,  352. 
Khiva,  scene  at,  109,  110. 
Kiriathaim,  150. 

Lamentations,  the,  118-136. 
Land,  sale  of,  95,  96. 
"  Law,"  the,  not  a  late  invention, 
254  ;  superstitious  reverence  of 


the,  487,  515;  public  reading  of. 

516. 
Levites,  246. 
Lions,  24;  den  of,  401. 

iNFadmenah,  150. 
Magog,  231. 
Malachi,  527-537. 
Marathon,  battle  of,  453. 
Marriage  procession,  101. 
Marriages,    mixed,    484,    490-499, 

528,  539. 
Media,  386. 
Memphis,  80  n. 
Messiah,  predicted,  59,  65,  67,  101, 

217,  221,  222,  229,  239,311,  432, 

530. 
Messianic  kingdom,  240. 
Migdol,  80. 
Mina,  a,  421. 
Misgab,  150. 
Mishor,  the,  58  n.,  152. 
Mizpeh,  161,  163,  165,  166,  167. 
Moab,    prophecies    against,    149- 

154  ;  towns  of,  152. 
Mordecai,  460. 
Mount  Moriah,  88. 
Mount  of  God,  the,  177. 
Mourning,    usages  in,   51-2,  165, 

379. 
Music  in  Babylon,  281, 
Myrtle,  the,  307. 

Nabathaeans,  416. 

Nabonidus,  289,  888,  394,  396  ; 
inscription  of,  388. 

Nebo,  Mount,  150. 

Nebo  (god),  324,  388  n. 

Nebuchadnezzar,  17,  32,  35,  37, 
55,  63,  113,  193,  199,  200,  201, 
204,  205,  207,  266,  270;  dream 
of,  274;  madness  of,  283;  death 
of,  284;  inscriptions  of,  284. 

Nehemiah,  499;  resolves  to  visit 
Judah,  501 ;  appointed  Pacha  of 
Judah,  503;  at  Jerusalem,  503; 
orders  walls  of  city  to  be  re- 
built, 505;  vigilance  in  rebuild- 
ing the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  511 ; 
legal  reforms  of,  521;  character 
of,  541. 


546 


INDEX. 


Nergal  Sharezer,  288. 
Nethiiiim,  410,  411. 
Noph,  80. 

'*Obadiah,"138,  139-144. 
Observatories  at  Babylon,  272. 
One  god,  specially  worshipped  by 
Nebuchadnezzar,  284. 

Palace-schools  in  Babylon,  257. 

Pathros,  83. 

Pentateuch,    '*  higher    criticism " 

on  the,  253. 
Persian  kings,  splendour  of,  465. 
Pharaoh  Hophrah,  55,  188,  197. 
Pharaoh's  house    in    Tahpanhes, 

204,  205. 
Philistines,     prophecies     against, 

147,  149. 
Phoenicians,    circumcision   among 

the,  176. 
Phut,  232. 
Pilgrims,  murder  of,    at  Mizpeh, 

105,  l66. 
Posts,  Persian,  462. 
Prayer,  hours  of,  376. 
Priests   and   Levites  in   Ezekiel's 

Temple,  245,  246. 
Priests,  moral  decay  of,  528. 
Prophetesses,  false,  4. 
Prophets,    the,    39;    false,    the,  1, 

60. 
Proselytes  in  Babylon,  377-8. 
Psammetichus  I.,  203. 

Queen  of  heaven,  the,  186. 

Red,  the  war  colour,  357. 
Registration  of  Jews,  515. 
Responsibility,     individual,      24, 

214. 
Resurrection,    Egyptian    ideas  of 

the,  227. 
Return,  the,  predicted,  66,  69 ;  few 

Jews  favoured  the,  344 ;  decreed, 

403;  the,  409;  numbers  in  the, 

409;  route  of  the,  415. 
Riblah,  113. 
Rich,  heartless  conduct  of  the,  at 

Jerusalem,  508. 


Ritual,  exactness  of,  after  the  Re- 
turn, 450. 

Roads,  repair  of,  before  great  men, 
300  w.,  356  ri. 

Rosh,  231. 

Rulers  of  Judah,  prophecies 
against,  216. 

Sabbath,     Jewish,  28;   profaned, 

528,  538. 
Sacred  fire,  discovery  of,  541. 
Saggatu,  268. 
Samaria,   14,  15,  416. 
Samaritans  wish  to  join  in  building 

Second  Temple,  425. 
Sanballat,  509,  510. 
Sandals,  10. 
Saracens,  155  n. 
Sceptre,  or  tribal  staff,  26. 
Scourging,  public,  87,  334  n. 
"  Scribes,"  rise  of  the,  485,  489. 
Scythians,  236. 

Seas,  known  to  Hebrews,  472  n. 
Seba,  315  n. 
"Servant   of  Jehovah,"  the,  311, 

313,  330,  331,  339,  340. 
Shallits,  277  n. 

Sheba,  meaning  of  the  word,  36  n. 
Shekels,  95. 

Shepherd's  coat,  a,  169. 
Sheshbazzar,  413. 
Shushan,  palace  at,  455,  456. 
Siege,  ancient,  98  n. 
Signet  ring,  433. 
Silk,  10. 

Silver,  melting  of,  329  n. 
Sinai,  land  of,  332. 
Sinira,  the  land  of,  883. 
Slave,  price  of  a,  476. 
Slavery,  348;  among  Jews,  507. 
Slaves,     branded     with    master's 

name,  318  n. 
Sodom,  14,  15. 

"Solomon,"  "servants  of,"  410. 
Sons,  love  of,  in  East,  364. 
"Stem  of  Righteousness,"  101. 
Susa,    gate    of,    in   Temple,    449; 

city  of,  454;  palace  of,  455. 
Swaddling  clothes,  10. 
Swine,  sacrificed,  360  n, 
Syene,  83. 


INDEX. 


54r 


Tabernacles,  Feast  of,  422,  519. 

Tabor,  81. 

Tahash,  the,  10  n. 

Tahpanhes,  169,  201, 202,  204,  205. 

Talmud,  485. 

Tainmuz,  106,  365  n. 

"  Tannin,''  the,  132  n. 

Tel,  67  n. 

Temple  burnt,  112. 

Temple,  Ezekiel's,  243;  laws  of, 
247;  river  flowing  from,  250. 

Temple  hill,  the,  341. 

Temple,  Second,  contributions  for 
rebuilding  the,  421 ;  preparations 
for  rebuilding,  422;  foundation 
stone  laid,  423  ;  Samaritans 
wish  to  help  to  build,  425 ;  work 
upon,  stopped,  426;  work  re- 
sumed, 431;  finished,  447;  de- 
tails respecting,  447 ;  fortress  at, 
449;  consecration  of,  449;  ser- 
vices suspended,  538. 

Ten  Tribes,  376,  377;  survivors  of 
the,  friendly  to  Judah,  416;  did 
they  return  ?  418. 

Tent  coverings,  158. 

Teraphim,  429. 

Tithes,  86,  522. 

Tobiah,  510,  511,  537. 

Tobit,  382. 

"Tortoise,"  military,  173. 

Tower  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  269. 

Treasures,  Temple,  in  Babylon, 
377,  278. 


Tubal,  232. 

Turtle  dove,  the,  350. 

Twelve  Tribes,  hopes  among  the, 

of  reunion,  228;   restoration  of 

the,  229. 
Tyre,    prophecies     against,    172; 

siege  of,  172-177,  181,  189. 

Urim  and  Thummim,  413. 
Vashti,  459. 

Walls,     painting  on,    of    Jewish 

mansions,  45. 
Watches,  night,  127. 
Western  civilization,  triumph  of, 

453. 
Wild  beasts,  mode  of  capture  of, 

24. 
Willow,  the  weeping,  291  n. 

Xerxes,  453;  palace  of,  455;  table 
of,  457 ;  banquet  given  by,  458 ; 
murder  of,  467. 

YaaVy  the,  58  n, 

Zadok,  245. 

Zechariah,  428,  434,  435,  471. 

Zedekiah,  6,  17,   18,  25  n.,  32,  56, 

64,  75,  76,  89,  90,  91,  93,  107- 

108,  161. 
Zertuscht,  vision  of.  294. 
Zerubbabel,  413,  421,  432. 


TEXTS   ILLUSTRATED. 


{The  texts  printed  in  blacker  type  are  translations.) 


Genesis,     taub 

iii.  14 362 

ix.  25 21 

xiv.  1 274 

XV.  10  79 

18 471 

XX.  3 72 

XXV.  2,4 852 

3 144 

29 432 

xxxiv.  19,  34,  35.. 425 

xxxviii.  18 26,  433 

21,22 412 

xlvii.  31 26 

xlviii.  16 306 

xlix.  9 25 


Exodus. 


iii.  7 


341 

8 28 

8-17 28 

iv.  31 28 

vi.  20 492 

viii.  24,31 335 

xi.  5 326 

xii.  6 450 

18 415 

38 492 

39.... .^39 

xiii.  11-13    30 

12 522 

xiv.  24 127 

XV.  20 123 

xix.  4 357 

XX.  2 28 


XX.  5 21 

24,  25 360 

xxi.  2 76,  348 

32 476 

xxii.  25 22,  507 

xxiii.  11 521 

13 44 

19 248,522 

31 462,  471 

XXV.  12 411 

xxvi.  6 411 

24 411 

xxviii.  1 540 

28 411 

42 247 

xxix.  37 245,  247 

XXX.  13 521 

23 317 

29 247 

xxxii.  12 28 

xxxiii.  11   338 

13 302 

xxxiv 255 

7 21 

12-16 491 

15,  ff 491 

26 248,  522 

XXXV.  11 411 

XXX vi.  15,  34 142 

xxxix.  28 51 

Leviticus. 

ii.  3 248 

iv 249 

vi 249 


vi.4 23 

11,  27 247 

16,  17,  18 248 

20 432 

vii.  6,  7 248 

31-34 69 

viii.  6 838 

15 245 

X.  9 247 

10 247 

xi.  7 360,  363 

29 365 

xii.  2 41 

xiii.  45 51,  133 

xvii.  7 28 

13... 50 

15 248 

xviii.  3 28 

5 28 

6-17 41 

12 492 

19 41 

21..... 30 

24,  25 491 

xix.  16 23 

20 87 

XX.  11 41 

xxi.  1-3 247 

5,  10 247 

6 12 

6-8 540 

6,  8,  17,  etc.. 531 
7-14 540 

10 51 

14 247 


550 


TEXTS   ILLUSTRATED. 


xxii.  8 248 

20-23 531 

xxiii.  22-25 516 

26-32 443 

36 519 

39-43 519 

XXV.  23-28 95 

24.25 95 

25,26 306 

34 95 

36 22,507 

39,  ff 348 

39-55 76 

xxvi 30 

34,  43 171 

39 21 

xxvii.  21 248 

Numbers. 

iii.  17,  18 478 

V.  8 306 

viii.  6,  ft" 338 

xi.  4,  etc 492 

12 97,302,  357 

xii.  6 62 

8 338 

xiii.  1 527 

33 147 

xiv.  14 338 

16 28 

18-33 21 

XV.  19.... 248 

20 522 

20,21 248 

xviii.  12 522 

13 248 

15,  17 522 

19 248 

22 433 

xxi.  15 156 

xxii.  2 527 

xxiv.  7 461 

17 154 

XXV.  13 540 

xxvi.  8 95 

59 492 

xxviii.  4,  5 250 

9,  11 250 

15 249 

19,20 249 


PAGE 

xxix.  1-6 516 

13,ff 249 

XXX.  6,  7 186 

xxxii.  38 150 

xxxiii.  52 290 

xxxiv.  1-12 471 

xxxv.  5 95 

12,  19 306 

33 50 

Deuteronomy. 

i.  1 107 

31 357 

ii.  4,  5,9,  19 471 

10 147 

12-22 140 

iii.  10 58 

iv.  10 99 

28 98 

34 28 

V.  9 21 

vi.  24 99 

vii.  1-5 491 

2 290 

viii.  7,  9 28 

ix.  28 28 

xiii.  2-12 02 

XV.  12 76,  348 

xvi.  3 339 

16 223 

xvii.  8 247 

xviii.  4 248 

10 30 

xix.  17 247 

xxi.  5 247 

13 72 

20 48 

xxii.  18 87 

22 72 

xxiii.  3 491,  527 

3,4 123 

18 412 

20 22 

xxiv.  1 72,  333 

12 22 

16 21 

XXV.  2,  3 87 

xxvi.  12 523 

14 51 

xxviii 30 


PAGE 

XXX.  16..    28 

19 57 

xxxi.  17 501 

xxxii.  29 133 

xxxiii.  10 347 

Joshua. 

ix.  21-27 410 

27 246 

xiii.  17 58 

XV.  1 146 

32 480 

xvi.  3,  5 509 

xviii.  13 509 

xix.  7 480 

29 179 

XX.  8 58 

xxiii.  7 44 

xxiv.  14 44 

Judges. 

iii.  5 491 

6 493 

V.  21 117 

vii.  25 118 

viii.  5 118 

X.  7 156 

xi.  12-32 156 

xvii.  5 425 

xviii.  14,  17, 18,  20.435 

XX.  26 443 

xxi.  19-21 123 


Ruth. 


i.  4.. 

iii.  9 

15 

iv.  1. 

6. 

22 


.493 
,  10 
.  97 
.306 
,  95 
.492 


1  Samuel. 

ii.  86 89 

vii.  6 443 

xi 156 

XV 461 

13 347 

23 425 

xvii.  4 147 


TEXTS  ILLUSTRATED. 


651 


PAGE 

xix.  13-16. . .  .320,  425 

xxviii.  6 62 

XXX.  14 149 

xxxi.  13 443 

2  Samuel. 

i.  23 304 

iii.3 492 

35 51 

V.  6,  7 99 

16 ..162 

vii.  12-16.... 345 

viii.  14 137 

x 156 

xi. 156 

3 493 

xii.  26 156 

XV.  2-4 58 

24 245 

30 51 

xviii.  18 347 

xxi 21 

xxii.  9 411 

xxiv.  16 472 

24 95 

1  Kings. 

i.  7 245 

32 245 

ii.  5 412 

iii.  5 62 

viii.  9 448 

27 363 

48 376 

65 519 

ix.  26 146 

xi.  1 493 

2 491 

xiv.  21 492 

24 412 

XV.  12 412 

16-22 163 

xvi.  31 493 

xvii.  9 143 

xxii.  19 440 

2  Kings. 

iv.  1 333 

22 28 

38 432 


PAGE 

viii.  20 137 

ix.  30 344 

x.  14 166 

xi.  1 162 

xiii.  20 150 

xiv.  6 21 

13 74,  87 

XV.  29 156 

37 411 

xvi.5 411 

6 137 

xvii.  24 165 

xix.  2 56 

12 67 

18 98 

28 25 

32 98 

xxi 21 

7 412 

18-26 245 

xxii.  12 160 

13 56 

xxiii.  7 412 

10 74 

24 425 

26 21 

xxiv.  1 256 

2 37,  156 

3 21 

9,  19 412 

14-16 104 

XXV.  1 49,  444 

8...  114,  274,  443 

12 113 

13-17   112 

18 413,  486 

18-21 113 

25 162 

1  Chronicles. 

ii.  34 492 

iv.  22 72 

V.  26 156 

vi.  14 113,413 

vii.  14 492 

ix.  3 376 

17-27 514 

XX 156 

5-8 147 

xxi.  15 .472 


PAGE 

xxiv.  3 245 

5 317 

9 56 

xxvi.  12-19 514 

xxix.  2 344 

2  Chronicles. 

ii.  17 492 

V.  9 448 

vi.  18 363 

vii.  9 .245,  519 

xvi.  1-6 163 

XXV.  16 334 

xxvi.  7 411 

8 156 

9 74 

xxviii.  17 137 

XXX.  11 165,  416 

17 450 

xxxiii.  11 25 

xxxiv.  9 165,  417 

XXXV.  7 223 

11-14  450 

xxxvi.  10 409 

17 Ill 

21 171,  402 

Ezra. 

i,  2 384 

2-4 403 

7 409 

8 413 

8,  11 377 

ii 369,  411,  515 

5 513 

7 495 

21,  28,  34 419 

36-39 409 

50 411 

59 67,412 

63 413 

64-67 369 

69 421 

iii.  1 421,  515 

1-6 242,  249 

2 242 

4 519 

6 422 

7 423 


552 


TEXTS  ILLUSTRATED. 


PAGE 

iv.3 424 

6 469 

6,  7 427 

7,  23 469 

9 469 

9-23 501 

20 277 

23 510 

24 426,  443 

V.  1 428 

2... 443 

3 443 

14 409,  413 

16 377 

vi.  1 442 

1-12 443 

2 443,  499 

3,  ff 447 

4 447 

9 522 

14 428 

14,  15  447 

16-18 450 

22 474 

vii.  1 113 

l,fE 486 

1-8 444 

6,  11,  12 487 

9 489 

10 487 

11,  12 486 

14 487 

16,  22,  24 488 

25,  26 488 

25 490 

viii.  7 495 

15-17 488 

16 488 

18-20 489 

20 246,  410 

22 489 

25-27 488 

29 449,489 

31 489 

ix.l 491 

2  419 

11 491 

12 491 

X.  3 376,495 

6 449 


PAGE 

X.  8,9 496 

8,  14 419 

10,16 486 

15 497 

20-43 498 

44 498 

Nehemiah. 

i.  2 .....483 

3 501 

4 502 

ii.  1-6..... 502 

3,  5 502 

7-9 419 

8 449,  503 

10 510,  513 

10,  19 510 

12 504 

18 505 

19 510 

iii.  1 74,  480 

4,  30 513 

5 505 

6 470 

7 411,  505 

8,  31,  32... 470,  505 

9,  12,  14,  15  ...419 

11 89 

12 505 

15 480 

20 469 

22 506 

28 107 

30 449 

32...  470 

iv.  2 .510 

2,  10 506 

4-6 511 

7 419 

10 507 

10,  16,  17,  23... 503 
12,  13,21,  23... 512 

16 419 

V.  5 333 

7,  10,  ff 22 

8 483 

10,  14-16 503 

11 508 

12 509 

14-18 504 


PAGE 

V.  15 468,  470 

vi.  1,  2,  6 510 

3,  6,  12,  14,  17, 

18 510 

10-12 514 

14,  17 513 

18 498,  513 

19 514 

vii 411 

2 449,  502 

3 514 

5 468,  515 

5-73 515 

7 419 

12 495 

26 3G9 

26-36 419 

34 ...376 

60 246 

61 67 

70-72 421 

viii.  2 486 

3 516 

4-7 517 

4,  9,  18 487 

8 517 

15 307 

16 87 

17 519 

18 519 

ix.  1 519 

4 520 

X.  37 449 

xi 523 

1,  18 328 

4 376 

20,  24.. 524 

25-35 419 

xii.  24 524 

26 529 

26,  36 487 

28 506 

38 89 

41 525 

42 525 

44 449 

xiii.  1 527 

2 491 

4 513 

4.  7 510 


TEXTS   ILLUSTRATED. 


553 


PAGE 

xiii.  5 449,  537 

10,  11 528 

11 538 

15 470,  486 

18 538 

19 503 

22 539 

24 419,  484 

25 334,  539 

28 509 

29 540 

Esther. 

i.  3  458 

6 458 

19 ,...461 

ii.  1-14 460 

7 307 

19-21 277 

iii.  1    461 

2      277 

9 401 

vii.  4 466 

ix.  12 466 

24 461 

Job. 

ii.  8 379 

11 142 

12,  13 51 

iv.  13 62 

vii.  1,  10 299 

14 62 

xii.  25....   313 

xvii.  14 299 

xviii.  18 313 

xix.  25 306 

xxi.  19 21 

XXX.  3 313 

10 334 

xxxi.  10 326 

xxxii.  2-6  370 

xxxiii.  15 62 

xli.  20 190 

xlii.  14 .344 

Psalms. 

xiii.  1  501 

xiv 290 

XV.  5 22 


PAGE 

xix.  14 306 

xxii.  7 334 

xxxii.  10 341 

xxxiv.  18 363 

xxxviii.  18 341 

xliv.  24 501 

xlv.  7 58 

xlviii.  2 28 

1.8-15 363 

Ii.  17 363 

liii.  5 290 

Iv.  17 376 

Ixiii.  6 127 

Ixvii.  4 58 

Ixviii.  25 123 

Ixix.  11 370 

Ixxiii 20 

19 175 

Ixxiv 116 

11 338 

13,  14 336 

Ixxvii.  19 175 

20 ..301 

Ixxviii.  35 306 

Ixxix 116,  123 

Ixxx.  1 301 

Ixxxiii 117 

Ixxxvii 423 

4 336 

Ixxxviii.  14 501 

Ixxxix.  10 336 

28 345 

46 501 

xcvi.   10 407 

xcvii.,  xcix 407 

cii 379 

cv.  31 335 

cvi 423 

34 290 

37 291 

46 368 

47,  48 291 

cvii 423 

10-14 408 

23-30 408 

cix.  14 21 

cxviii  423 

cxx 423 

cxxiv 367 

cxxvi 408 


PAGE 

cxxix 367 

cxxxiv 423 

cxxxvi 423 

cxxxvii.  282,  291,  867 

7 138 

cxli.  2,3,5 376 

cxliii.  10 58 

cxliv 451 

cxlv 451 

cxlvi 451 

cxlvii 451 

cxlviii 451 

Proverbs. 

v.  3 492 

vi.  24 492 

vii.  5 492 

X.  26 20 

xvii.  23 97 

xxvi.   10 237 

xxviii.  8 22 

ECCLESIASTES. 

ix.  14 363 

Isaiah. 

i 346 

22 42 

29., 360 

ii.  2 244 

12 236 

V.  i 8,  811 

viii.  7 147 

ix.  12 147 

X.  18,  33 81 

xi.  4 58 

6-9 362 

13  228,  451 

14 147 

xiii.  6 236 

21 360 

xiv.  3 367 

13 177 

21 21 

XV 139,  149,  154 

xvi 139,  149,  154 

7-11 153 

XX.  2 51.  334 


554 


TEXTS  ILLUSTRATED. 


PAGE 

xxi.  1 473 

1-10 384 

2 158 

xxvi.  13 72 

xxvii.  1 336 

xxviii.  4 63 

XXX.  25 307 

27,  28 350 

xxxiii.  25 307 

xxxiv.  1-17 144 

6 238 

14 360 

16 375 

XXXV.  7 307 

8 523 

xxxvii.  12 67 

20,  29 25 

33 98 

xl.-xlviii 299 

xl.   1-31 299-304 

2 299,  319,341 

8 310 

11 97,  302 

27 299 

xli.  1-29.    ...304-309 

2 386 

.     8 310 

19 435 

25,  ff 402 

xUi 311-314 

1 339 

1-7 339 

11  157 

19 340 

22 367 

acliii 314,  317 

4,25 318 

14 306 

28 367 

xliv 318-321 

1,21 340 

3,  4 307 

5 332 

6 304 

6,24 306 

10 340 

28 402 

xlv 321-324 

1,  2 398 

1,  ff 402 


PAOE 

xlv.  2 364 

19 313 

xlvi 324-326 

1 324,  399 

3,  4 357 

11 386 

xlvii 326-327 

4 307 

6 367 

xlviii.  1-6 328 

7-17 329 

13 304 

22 299 

xlix.-lvii 299 

1-9 339 

1,2 330 

3 340 

3-10 331 

6 312 

8 339 

12 383 

14 299 

21 343 

1 2»9,  333,  334 

1,  2 333 

3-11 334 

li.  1-7 335 

4 311 

13 367 

Hi.  1 523 

1-3 337 

4-12 ..338 

8 299 

12 339 

13,  14 341 

15 , 339 

liii.  1 339 

1-3 341 

4,  5,  6 339 

4-12 342 

7,  8 339 

9 339 

12 339 

liv.  1,5 72 

1-10 343 

11-17 344 

16 319 

lv.1-5 345 

6-13 346 

13 307,  435 


PAGE 

Ivi 363 

1 346 

2-8 347 

4 376 

6 378 

6,  7 377 

8 347 

10 338 

Ivii 299 

5 360 

7 12 

9 361 

15 363 

21 299,347 

Iviii.  1,  2 347 

3-12 348 

3-12 443 

4 348 

lix.  1-10 349 

1-15 878 

Ix 363 

14 .351 

4 365 

16 302 

Ixi.  1-9 354 

3 51,  376 

Ixii.  1-7 355 

4,  5 72 

Ixiii.  1-9 357 

10-17 358 

Ixiv.  1-10 359 

10 171 

11  378 

Ixv.  1-7 360 

3 360 

3-8 378 

6,  7 97 

7 21 

15 379 

Ixvi.  1-4 363 

2,  5 376 

10 376 

12 302 

17 360,  378 

20 363,  369 

Jeremiah. 

i.  4,  20 376 

5 ...330 


TEXTS   ILLUSTRATED. 


555 


FAGE 


ii  6  31 

...313 

9 

...21 

21 

...     8 

iii.  10-22 

...101 

14 

...72 

16     

.  .448 

18 228,229  1 

iv.  30 

...344 

V.  16 

...236 

vi.  13 

...133 

20 

...317 

23     

. . .236 

vii   14 

...52 

17,  18 

...186 

31  

...30 

viii.  14 

...  61 

21 

...51 

xi.  15 

..  432 

xiii.  17 

...301 

XV.  4 

...21 

xvi.  6.... 147,  154,  165 

7  

...51 

xvii.  18 

...300 

21 

...539 

xviii.  19  

...21 

XX.  1 

...56 

1,  2 

...  89 

2,7 

...334 

xxi.  1 85, 

89,  113 

1,  2 

...56 

4-10 

...57 

11-14 

...58 

14 

...81 

xxii.  1-3 

...58 

4-9 

...59 

xxiii.  1-4 

...59 

5,  6 

...101 

5-12... 

...60 

11   

...133 

13-25.. 

...61 

26-34 . . 

...62 

35-40 . . 

...63 

xxiv.  1 

....  87 

1-3 

....  63 

6-10.... 

...64 

8 

....171 

XXV,  1 

....256 

9,21 

. . . .144 

11 

...402 

15 

....152 

PAGE 

xxvi.  8 133 

16 87 

24 160 

xxvii.  16-22 409 

51,59 189 

xxviii.  2,  3 409 

xxix.  1 299 

2 87 

10 402 

22 379 

25 56,  113 

25,  26 85 

XXX.  1-3 65 

4-7 65 

6-14 66 

10 310 

10-18 229 

15-22 67 

23,24 68 

xxxi.  1-7 68 

5 229 

8-14 69 

10  301 

15 358 

15-20 70 

19 35 

21-27 71 

28-34 72 

31 448 

31-34 312 

35-40 74 

xxxii.  1-5 94 

4 76 

6-15 94 

7-16 97 

8,  12 89 

17-21 97 

18 21 

20 315 

22 28 

22-31 98 

32-44 99 

35 30 

xxxiii.  2-9 100 

4 105 

10-17 101 

18-26 102 

xxxiv.  1 75 

1,  7 75 

2-6 76 


PAGB 

xxxiv.  8-10 77 

11   78 

13-22  79 

15 77 

18 77 

XXXV.  11 138 

xxxvi.  19 87 

xxxvii.  3...56,  89,  113 

5 77 

7-10 86 

11-15 86 

12 86 

16-21 87 

17 92 

20 88 

21 105 

xxxviii 21 

1 85,  89 

1-3 89 

1,4 56 

4 85 

5,6 90 

6 131 

7 87 

7-13 90 

9 105 

14 92 

14-19 92 

19-22 93 

23  93 

24-28 93 

xxxix.  1 49,  106 

2 210 

3 106,  289 

5 108 

8 112 

9,  11 274 

10 113 

11-14 114 

16-18 106 

xl.,  xli.,  xlii.,  xliii.160 

xl.  13 167 

xli.  1 162,164 

2,  3 443 

5-8 417 

xliii.  10-13 169 

8 204 

xliv.  1 207 

1-15 184 

2-6 184 


556 


TEXTS  ILLUSTRATED. 


PAGE 

xliv.  7-14 185 

15 186 

16-21 186 

22-28 187 

29,  30 188 

30 200 

xlvi.  2 158,  256 

10 236,  238 

13  188 

14-15 80 

16-27 81 

27,  28 310 

xlvii.  2-6 147 

xlviii.  1-8 150 

8,  21 58 

9-20.. „.  ..151 

21-28 152 

29-35 153 

36-47 154 

37 147,  165 

xlix 138 

1 219 

1-4 156 

5-6 157 

7 143 

7,  8. 144 

7-22 292 

9 141 

9-18 145 

19-22 146 

23-27 157 

28-33 ...158 

34 158 

34-39 384 

35-39 159 

1.  7-17 367 

19  801 

20 300 

21 46 

45 146 

li.  5 376 

8,  30,  31 399 

40 399 

41 292 

58 ...263 

Hi.  4 49,  106,  444 

6 105,  106 

6,7 443 

7 107 

8 108 


PAGE 

lii.  10 112,  116 

11 76,  367 

12....  107,  210,  443 

14 112 

15 274 

16 113 

17-23 112 

24 56,  113,  317 

24-27 113 

28 104 

28-30 114 

30 171,  211 

31 Ill 

31-34 207 

Lamentations. 

i 122-125 

4 119 

12,  18 341 

ii 125-127 

8,  9 115 

19 132 

iii.. 128-131 

iv 132-134 

10 92,  105 

12-15 105 

21 138,  219 

21,  22 292 

V 185,  136 

7 21 

18  115 

20 501 

EZEKIEL. 

i 292 

iii.  15 67 

20 215 

iv.  7 338 

12-15 379 

V.  10 105 

vii.  24 219 

viii.  1-3    243 

7-10 44 

ix.  9,  etc 229 

X 292 

19 244 

xi.  1,  23 244 

a-7 49 

7-11 49 


PAGE 

xi.  15 329 

xii.  13 76 

22 1 

23-25 1 

xiii.  3-7 2 

5 236 

8-17 3 

18-23 4 

xiv.  1-5 5 

1-11 27 

4^11 6 

13-20 7 

14 295 

21-23 8 

XV.  2-6 8 

7-8 9 

xvi 44 

3 9 

4-11 10 

8 16 

12-16 11 

17-27 12 

26 44 

27-57 147 

28-36.... 13 

37-46 14 

47-54 15 

53 229 

55-63 16 

xvii 35,  292 

1 25 

1-6 17 

7-19 18 

17 98 

20-24 19 

xviii.  1-17 22 

2    72 

18 72 

18-30 23 

24,  26,  27 215 

31,32 24 

xix.  2 24 

3-9 25 

5 69 

9 Ill 

10-14 26 

XX.  1-4 27 

4 44 

5-13 28 

12,13,16,21,24..346 


TEXTS   ILLUSTRATED. 


557 


PAOK 

XX.  14-23 29 

24-30 30 

30 328 

31-40 31 

40 229 

41-44 32 

45-48 33 

xxi.  2-11 34 

12-17 35 

18-23 36 

21   55,  425 

24 347 

24-27 37 

28-32 38 

xxii.  1-3 40 

4-16  41 

18-28 42 

26 247 

29-31 43 

xxiii.  1-10 44 

11-18 45 

19-30 46 

31-39 47 

36-44 412 

40-49 48 

xxiv.  1,  2 83 

2-5 49 

6-14 50 

21 52 

21-24 52 

25-27 53 

XXV 54,  189 

2-7 155 

3,8,  12,  15..  137 

8-11 155 

8-14 292 

12-14 146 

15-17 149 

xxvi 54 

2 137 

2-6 172 

7-14 173 

15-21 174 

xxvii.  1-24... 175,  179, 
181 

25-36 175 

30 379 

xxviii 292 

2-10 176 

3 295 


PAGE 

xxviii.  10 237 

12-15 177 

16-23 178 

24-26 179 

xxix.  1-7 82 

1-16 189 

3 336 

4 25 

8-16 83 

17-20 180 

18,  19..  180,  193 
20,  21..  180,  194 

xxx.  2 194 

3-11 195 

6 200 

13,  15,  17 195 

15 197 

20 83 

20-20 189 

21-26 84 

xxxi.  1-18 189 

xxxii.  2 189 

2 336 

3-15 190 

14,  15 266 

16-21 191 

19,  fl 237 

22-32 192 

30 189 

xxxiii 213 

2,3 213 

4-11 214 

10 ,.299 

12-20 215 

21 209 

24 211 

25-29 212 

27 379 

28 218 

33 210 

xxxiv.  2-8 216 

9-16 217 

11-16 301 

17-29 218 

23..66,229,231 

XXXV 143 

1-8 219 

9-15 220 

11...  138 

xxxvi.  1-5 220 


PAGE 

xxxvi.  5 138 

6-17 221 

18-26 222 

22,  32,  etc... 313 

24 229 

27-37 223 

xxxvii.  3-9 224 

10-14 225 

11...    299 

12 229 

16-23 230 

24 66 

24-28 231 

25 310 

xxxviii.  3 231 

2-6 232 

4 25 

7-9 233 

10-16 234 

17-23 235 

xxxix.  1,2 235 

3-10 236 

11-16 237 

17 237 

17-24 238 

25 229 

25-29 239 

xl.  1 243 

2 242 

xlii.  13 244 

19,  20 241 

xliii.  7 244 

8,9 245 

10,  11,  18 245 

xliv.  6-9 246 

10,  15 246 

17,  18 247 

18 51 

20,  21,  22,  23, 

24 247 

29-31 248 

xlv 248 

1 248 

4  248 

8 242 

9 248 

13-17 249 

18 242,  249 

21,  22 249 

21-25  249 


558 


TEXTS  ILLUSTllATBD. 


PAGE 

xiv.  23,  24 249 

xlvi 249 

4 250 

6 250 

13,  14 250 

18 242 

20 247 

xlvii 251 

8 250 

13 229 

14 242 

18. 237 

20 252 

xlviii 251 

30 252 

35 60 

Daniel. 

i.l 256 

3 257 

4,  17 259 

6 256,  402 

10 275 

11 260 

20 273,  276 

ii.  1 274 

2 273 

4 274 

4,  12 259 

14 273,274 

15 277 

27 273 

31 276 

46,  48,  49 277 

iii 277 

3,  27 272 

25 282 

iv 283 

5-16 379 

30 269 

34,37 283 

V 396 

3 409 

4 397 

19 275 

26-28 398 

29 277 

31 400 

vi.  7 275 

10,  11 376 


PAGE 

vi.  14-17 275 

vii.  13 382 

viii.  2,  16 454 

9 28 

ix.  24 328 

X.  13,21 382 

xii.  1 382 

2 382 

HOSEA. 

i.  9 300 

11 228 

ii.  11 28 

iii.  2 476 

4 425 

5 66,  228 

iv.  14 412 

V.   13 292 

vi.  4 321 

vii.  4,  6 89 

ix.  4 51 

10 63 

X.  1 8 

6 292 

xiii.  15 478 

Joel. 

i.  8 334 

ii.,  iii 239 

ii.  11 236 

15 443 

28 62 

iii.  4 147 

17 523 

Amos. 

i.  4,  14 157 

6 147 

11 144 

13-15 156 

ii.  1-3 154 

8 22 

v.  18 236 

vi.  1 69 

viii.  1-3 63 

5 28 

ix.  11 228 

Obadiah. 
1-21 141-143 


page 

8 139,  142 

11,12 292 

11-13....  138,  140,  144 

14 138 

19 147 

MiCAH. 

i.  11 480 

ii.  12,13 228 

iii.   7 51 

11 52 

iv.  1 244 

13 307 

V.  2 228 

vii.  1 63 

Nahum. 

i.  15 523 

iii.  12 63 

Zephaniah. 

i.l4 236 

ii.  5 147,  149 

8-10 154,  160 

Haggai. 

i.  2 430 

4 444 

4^9....... . !!..430 

10,  11 431 

13 529 

14,  15 431 

ii.  3 428 

3,  4 431 

5-9 432 

7 435,  441,  470 

9  434 

11-13 432 

14-19 433 

21-23 433 

Zechariah. 

i.  1 434 

1-7 428 

2,3 434 

4,6 435 

7 434 

7-11 429 

8,  10,  11 307 


TEXTS    ILLUSTRATED. 


559 


PAGE 

i.  8-17 435 

i.  14-17 430 

15 292 

18-21 436 

ii.  1-5 430 

3 437 

4 428,  503 

6-13 437 

iii.   1-10 437 

9 439 

iv.    1-5 438 

6-7 439 

V.  1-4 439 

5-11 440 

vi.  1-8 441 

8 441 

12,  13 442 

15 442 

vii.  1 434 

2 442 

2,  ff 348 

3 376 

5 164 

7 419 

9-13 444 

14 28 

viii.  2-12 445 

13-17 446 

19 49, 

348,  376,  444 

20-23 446 

ix.-xi 471 

ix.  1-8 471-472 

5 147,  471 

9-10 472 

11-17 473 

16 131 

X.  1-4 473 

2 425 

5-11 474 

xi.  1-6 475 

7-14 476 

15-17 477 

xii.  1-5    477 

6-13 478 

xiii.  1 478 

2-9 479 

xiv.  1-4 479 

5-14 480 

10 74,  87 


PAGE 

xiv.  15-21 481 

21,    etc 523 

Malachi. 

i.  1-3 530 

3 144 

4-10 531 

6,  9,  10 528 

8 529 

11-14 532 

ii.  1-4 532 

5-15 533 

6 58 

10-14 528 

11 72 

17 534 

iii.  1 584 

2-13 535 

5 528 

14-18 536 

16 376 

iv.  1-6 536 

2 312 

1  ESDRAS. 

ii.  12,  15 377 

V.  2 414 

6 415 

12 495 

36-40 413 

41 409 

50 422 

59 423 

viii.  33 495 

2  ESDRAS. 

xiii.  41 417 

TOBIT. 

iv.  3-20,  etc 382 

The  Wisdom  of  Jesus, 
Son  of  Sirach,  or 
ecclesiasticus. 

xlix 293 

11-13 541 

1.3 449 


Baruch.     page 

ii.  3 105 

vi 209,  381 

4 397 

Song  of  the  Three 
Children.  .  . .  381 
14,  15 382 

Bel  and  the  Drag- 
on  381 

1  Maccabees. 

i.  22 447 

23 448 

38 448 

iv.  29 416 

38-48 449 

44 448 

49 448 

51  447,  448 

v.  3  416 

X.  84 419 

2  Maccabees. 

i.   18,  19 541 

ii.  1-8 208 

5 447 

13 541 

viii.  1-4 116 

XV.  13,  15 209 

14 209 

St.  Matthew. 

iii.   17 311 

iv.  5 328 

viii.  17 339 

xi.  10 536 

xii.  18 311 

18,  ff 339 

xvi.  14 209 

xvii.  5 311 

11 536 

24 521 

xviii.  25 333 

xxiii.  37 208 

xxiv.  41 326 

xxvi.  67 334 


560 


TEXTS   ILLUSTRATED. 


PAGE 

xxvii.  9 209 

9,  10 476 

25 21 

30 334 

39 152 

58 328 

St.  Mark. 

vi.  23 463 

ix.  11 536 

St.  Luke. 

i.  16,  17 536 

iv.  18 353 

vi.38 97 

vii.  27 536 

xi.  5 89 

47  208 

xvi.  22 358 

24 335 

xvii.  35 326 

xxii.  37 339 

St.  John. 

ix.  2 21 

xi.  25 312 

xii.  38 339 


Acts.       page 

iv.   37 95 

V.  32 339 

40 334 

vii.  42 30 

xiii.  47 339 

xvi.  13 376 

xxi;  3,  4 182 

Romans. 

i.  24 ...  30 

X.  16 339 

XV.  21 339 

1  Corinthians, 

V.  1  41 

2  C'orinthians. 

vi.  2 339 

xi.  24 334 

Galatians. 
i.  15 330 

Ephesians. 
i.  6 311 


page 

V.  14 ...209 

vi.  17 330 

Philippians. 
ii.  7 311 

2  ThessAlonians. 

ii.  11 30 

Hebrews. 

iv.  12  330 

xi.    32 7 

1  St.  Peter. 
ii.  24 339 

Revelation. 

i.  16 330 

vi.  12 334 

viii.  3 376 

xi.  19 447 

xix.   15 330 

xxi.  2-10 252 

12 252 

xxii.  2 351 


Date  Due 


AP22-5; 

1 

^ 

BS511.G3121905V.6 
Hours  with  the  Bible  :  or,  The 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00046  3531 


